Karen Wils photo It is the hungry season. A porcupine feasts on some treetop frozen apples.

ESCANABA — The ultimate predator is out there!

Wolf tracks wander on the crusty snow throughout Upper Michigan.

Wildcats — bob, lynx and bigger — prowl beneath the frosted forests. Coyotes, foxes and great owls are forever hunting for hares, mice and shrews.

It is the hunger season.

The circle of life is truly spinning around out in the woods just beyond our homes. Sometimes by mid-winter, we humans are pretty housebound. A good, warm furnace and a four wheel-drive pick-up truck are things that get us through the long, cold winters.

While we are ordering pizza or baking pasties, the wildlife works super hard to track supper down out in the snowy woodlands.

The predator and prey relationship takes center stage in the wintertime. It is time for survival of the fittest.

It may seem cruel and unkind out here in the wild, but if the numbers of both predator animals and prey animals are in balance, the “circle of life and death” is a thing of beauty. Right now, there is an increase in the number of big predator animals in the U.P.

The wolves and the whitetails, the fishers and the porcupines, and the snowy owls and the voles dance the ancient dance of survival in the north woods.

Food is hard to come by when three feet of snow covers everything. On cold nights, calories are a must to keep bodies warm and well.

It is amazing to watch Mother Nature’s ways of winter survival for every species. The snowshoe hare has its snowshoe-like hind legs to give it speed in the deep now. The grouse knows how to tunnel down into the fluffy snow so that it stays cozy and warm with thermal protection. The deer’s metabolism slows way down in the winter so that it needs less food.

The weasel and ermine turn snowy white to blend into the winter scenery.

So what animal is the ultimate predator? Is it the return of the big timber wolf? Is it the cougars and cats? How about human hunters and the cars and trucks that take out wildlife?

The deadliest predator is none of these.

The ultimate predator is the season of winter. The cold temperatures, the snow, ice, starvation and wind kill more wildlife than any predators. This is why Yoopers respect wildlife and act responsible in the season of winter.

It is the hungry season for all of us.

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A SHORT POEM ABOUT THE ­PREDATOR SUPREME:

In the distant northern wilderness,

Lurks the predator supreme.

On clear night, when all is

cold and still, I hear her

hiss, howl and scream!

Her claws are like crude spears of ice,

her feral voice has an echoing ring.

A deadly grip is in her bite,

With teeth as sharp as a blizzard’s sting.

The predator supreme is called “winter.”

The ultimate killer,

like other predators, we need her.

She perfects her habitat,

and we love her!

­——

Karen (Rose) Wils is a lifelong north Escanaba resident. Her folksy columns appear weekly in Lifestyles.