Since it is cold outside today, and it is snowing again in my second home in Austria, I will now, despite the spring-like feelings in the last post in this category, talk about winter again.
On 16 February, Canada Post issued a block depicting 5 mammals. What they all have in common is that they turn white in winter to blend in with the snow-covered landscape. They are the Peary caribou, the ermine, and the snowshoe hare on vertically-formatted stamps and the Northern collared lemming, and the Arctic fox on horizontally formatted stamps. Only 19 species of mammals are known to change color in winter, and Canada is home to 12 of them. More than any other country. Canada Post added: “The five depicted on these stamps represent the hunters and the hunted. The ermine and the arctic fox are predators that blend into the snowy background to stalk their next meal. The snowshoe hare, Peary caribou, and Northern collared lemming are prey animals that rely on camouflage to avoid detection.”
Each stamp has no face value and is franked at domestic letter postage (92¢). There is also a hidden design detail on each stamp that is only visible when the stamp is viewed under ultraviolet light. When you do this, the animal’s characteristic track appears in the lower-left corner, as it would appear in fresh snow.