If you were wondering what animals hibernate, you are in the right place. But do you even know what hibernation is and why some animals hibernate and others don’t?
Winter sleep, or hibernation, is a natural phenomenon that occurs in certain animal species in the colder part of the year. Then animals that enter hibernation, a state similar to sleep, lower their own body temperature to make it easier to endure this time of year. This means that winter sleep is not real sleep, but that it is similar to deep sleep and the organism is in a state of reduced metabolic activity.
All animals hibernating in the fall will try to find a place to hibernate, a place where they will be protected from the extreme cold. Most often these are holes in the ground, hollow trees and caves. Moreover, once they have found a place to hibernate, the animals further arrange it by trying to make it as warm as possible by adding hay, straw, leaves, hair, wool and any similar material that can warm them in that cold winter season. . Many species of animals hibernate together in such a shelter to save energy. They curl up next to each other and hibernate with their eyes closed and their body temperature drops by as much as 1 degree.
This of course means that all bodily functions adjust to this change in temperature, so they slow down and decrease. The breathing of hibernating animals is weak, the heartbeat is very slow and the animals are almost insensitive to all external stimuli.
How long hibernation lasts depends on the species of animal, as different species hibernate for longer periods.
Animals that hibernate – what does winter sleep look like
As we have already said, certain species of animals have varying lengths of winter sleep. Some animals, such as mice, hedgehogs or quills, go into true hibernation, and some larger animals, such as badgers or bears, will rest for a period of time, but will move and feed whenever they feel the outside temperature rising. This means that bears are not actually hibernating, but are in a so-called hibernation state. winter lethargy, meaning they can wake up from hibernation very easily to feed and warm themselves.
A bear like a brown bear actually sleeps just a little harder, and if the ambient temperature drops below 5 degrees Celsius, the bear will shiver and its movement will increase blood circulation, thereby increasing the body temperature so that the body temperature decreases. must not fall below the critical limit. They can also be woken up by almost any sound as they are very light.
Photo: UnsplashPolar bears are different and particularly interesting, they stay active all year round because they have a state called hibernation on the fly, which means they can lower their metabolism themselves to reduce energy loss and maintain the same body temperature.
Another interesting thing to mention, related to hibernation, is that it is not a continuous, month-long sleep in which there is no break, but that such sleep is interrupted by short periods of wakefulness. However, such periods of awakening should not be frequent, as they consume large reserves of energy, so if the animal wakes up often and consumes reserve energy, it may happen that it will not have enough energy for the actual awakening that occurs in the spring. During the spring awakening, all the stored energy is needed to return the bodily functions to normal.
Food and necessities
Thus, animals that hibernate periodically wake up to defecate, eat, and then return to hibernation. It should be emphasized that hibernating animals do not drink water, but use metabolic water during sleep, which their organism creates as a by-product of metabolic body reactions.
The hardest part of hibernation is actually waking up from it, and that happens in the spring. Animals that wake up from hibernation need to quickly warm their bodies to normal temperature, and they usually do this by using a special tissue to quickly warm the body. It is activated by spring awakening and a very large amount of heat begins to be released in it, which wakes up the animals and prepares them for functioning.
Which animals hibernate?
If you don’t know which animals hibernate, you can learn more about them in the rest of the text.
Bats
bats are a species of animal that also hibernate and prepare for it by eating a lot during the fall in order to build enough adipose tissue for the winter and successfully overcome hibernation. as soon as they get cold, they retreat to a warm and humid place and hibernate from there.
Squirrels
Squirrels spend the autumn diligently collecting fruit and storing it in shelters so that they have enough food every time they wake up in the winter. What you might not know is that squirrels are quite forgetful animals, which is why they store their food in many different places before hibernation. Sometimes it happens that they even forget where they put them, and sometimes other animals find their hidden supplies, so the squirrels are often left without them.
Hedgehog
A hedgehog eats a lot in the summer and gains almost twice its normal weight. His house is in the ground and is covered in a very thick layer of leaves, moss and grass. In some hedgehogs, the layer of the nest is even 50 centimeters thick, so the temperature of the hedgehog house is very pleasant for winter sleep. At the beginning of December, the hedgehog retires to his house and sleeps there until spring awakening. Did you know that the hedgehog is the only insectivore that hibernates?
Fish
Many people do not know that fish also hibernate by retreating deep into it with their schools and hibernating there.
Frogs
Frogs also hibernate and, like fish, burrow into the mud at the bottom of the water and spend their hibernation period breathing through their skin. Many people do not know that when it is very cold and the temperatures are below freezing, frogs can freeze, but as soon as it warms up, they will thaw and not harm them. This is because the frog can change its body temperature and that depends on where the frog is.