home » Spring » Which animals hibernate, when and why. What animals hibernate? Gray mouse lemur

Which animals hibernate, when and why. What animals hibernate? Gray mouse lemur

Sometimes I also want to fall asleep for a long time, but, unfortunately, this is not given to a person. The maximum I can sleep is fifteen hours, probably. Rarely can a person sleep even for a day (as specialists at sleep centers say), although no one has recorded the maximum duration of sleep. But animals can sleep for a couple of months, but first things first.

The Bears

These animals are classified as super predators. For example, a brown bear can weigh up to 600 kilograms. This “colossus” needs a lot of food. And, of course, before they hibernate, bears eat up their fat.

So, every autumn, bears that live in temperate and polar latitudes begin active preparations for hibernation. They not only try to eat more, but also look for shelter for the winter.

In some cases, bears can sleep for six months. It is surprising that some female bears can even give birth during hibernation.

Of course, at this time the bears' metabolism decreases and their heart rate slows down. For example, black representatives of the genus can slow it down to nine beats per minute.

Those bears that come out of hibernation before the allotted time are usually called “connecting rods”.

Frog

Yes, this reptile also goes into hibernation in winter. And before this period, they also actively gain weight by eating heavily.

Of course, there are many types of frogs. Each species prepares for hibernation in different ways, and they fall asleep at different times of the year.

For example, frogs that live in lakes fall asleep as soon as the air temperature drops. The overwhelming majority of frogs spend the winter in wooded areas.

What other animals can hibernate?

Five animals that hibernate:

raccoons;
badgers;
jerboas;
hamsters;
chipmunks.

I’ll tell you a little more about hamsters. Their version of hibernation, of course, is more “light” than that of bears. This can not even be called hibernation, but numbness. In winter, the body of this animal switches to a very economical mode. His body temperature drops sharply, and he simply does not react to anything.

This is a humorous version of the answer to the question of why animals hibernate. But she is, of course, incorrect. There is another version of the answer to this question that is also incorrect. Many children (and adults) believe that animals sleep in winter to wait out the cold. This is only partly true. Of course have cold-blooded animals - these are those animals that cannot maintain their body temperature themselves. In order to lead an active lifestyle, they need heat to come from outside. Such animals include reptiles, amphibians, fish and all invertebrates: insects, mollusks, worms, etc. As soon as the air temperature drops to a certain point, they all hibernate.
But they are not the only ones sleeping. In winter, some also sleep warm-blooded animals : many rodents, hedgehogs, badgers, raccoons. And, of course, the most famous of the dormouse is the bear.

Exercise.
In this picture I drew different animals. Ask your child to name which ones are warm-blooded and which ones are cold-blooded.

If everything depended only on the cold, then why doesn’t the polar bear sleep in winter, although it lives in a much colder climate than the brown one? We already once studied why polar bears do not freeze in winter: they have a number of adaptations to keep warm. But the brown bear also has its own adaptations to avoid freezing. Moreover, sleeping is not much warmer for him than not sleeping. After all, in winter bears sleep not only in closed dens dug in the ground (which are called ground), but they also use high-mounted dens, i.e. simply holes in which they sleep right under the snow. And they are probably cold there.

This means that something else besides the cold causes animals to hibernate in winter. How else does winter differ from other seasons, besides low air temperatures? Lack of vegetation. There is no grass, no berries, no flowers, no green leaves. Therefore, herbivores that primarily fed on them experience great difficulties with nutrition.
Ask your child what wild animals he knows (domestic animals are not counted here, since humans take care of their nutrition) that feed on vegetation? These are deer, elk, roe deer, wild boars and other ungulates. These are many species of birds and fish. These are rodents. And if large herbivorous animals can somehow get food for themselves: by digging it out from under the snow, switching to feeding on branches and bark of plants, moss, etc., then small animals cannot survive without plants. That's why they hibernate. In winter, many rodents sleep: gophers, hamsters, marmots, and dormouse.
And since in winter there is not only vegetation, but also small rodents, frogs, worms, mollusks and other small living creatures, as well as insects, then the animals that feed on them have nothing to eat: many birds, hedgehogs, shrews, bats, badgers, raccoons -gargles and bears. And they have to either move to warm regions where insects do not sleep (as birds do), or hibernate (as hedgehogs do). And some do this at the same time: for example, insectivorous bats - leather bats. They are typical inhabitants of urban buildings and are distributed over a vast territory, including all continents except Antarctica. With the onset of winter, the Kozhans migrate from the northern territories, flying like birds, to the south. And there they hibernate in caves, attics and other secluded places.

I drew pictures with various animals and their food. These cards can be printed by downloading the file in full size from Yandex.Disk

You can complete several tasks using them.
1. Invite your child to take a card with his favorite animal and select from the other cards those that show what he eats. For example, a fox eats eggs, mice, hares, snails, lizards, and beetles.
2. Invite your child to find and make different food chains - who eats whom. For example, “grain-mouse-hedgehog”.

By the way, animals hibernate not only from cold, but also from heat. Except winter it also happens aestivation . Those animals that cannot maintain the body temperature they need in conditions of high temperature and drought fall into it. These are some fish and amphibians, as well as mammals. For example, the African hedgehog and the tenrec (Madagascar insectivorous animal). The sandy gopher, which lives in Central Asia, Kazakhstan and the Volga region, also goes into summer hibernation in June due to the heat. The most amazing thing is that his summer hibernation turns into winter hibernation without interruption! And he wakes up only in February-April. That is, this gopher does not sleep only 2-4 months a year!

Thus, we can conclude that hibernation is necessary for animals as a seasonal adaptation to unfavorable environmental conditions. Some animals switch to other food, while others hibernate.

Hibernation comes in different forms.
Very few animals sleep in deep sleep, which cannot be interrupted by anything: these are bats, hedgehogs, gophers, hamsters, jerboas, dormice, and marmots. Are you familiar with the expression “Sleeps like a groundhog”? They say this precisely because it is almost impossible to bring a marmot out of hibernation. In such deep hibernation, the animal’s metabolism decreases, the temperature drops to near-zero (from +5 to -2 in gophers, according to some data), the heart begins to beat almost 10 times less often than usual, and the breathing rate decreases 40 times. All this is necessary so that the animal spends as little energy as possible. It, like a computer or phone that “goes” into standby mode, lives in economical mode. This state is actually called real hibernation.

Hazel dormouse. Photo from Wikipedia

Another type of hibernation - superficial (superficial numbness) . Such hibernation is typical, for example, for bears, chipmunks, and prairie dogs. During sleep, an animal's body temperature decreases, but only slightly: by a few degrees. And the heartbeat and breathing roughly correspond to normal sleep. It is easy to wake up such an animal.

And there is hibernation daily allowance —hummingbirds and bats flow into it. They cannot maintain their body temperature on their own, so at night, during cold spells, they fall into a stupor that lasts until the morning.

Bat. Photo from Wikipedia

Exercise:
Look at the picture with a winter forest and find all the animals in it. Which one is hibernating? (For the picture to open in full size, it must be opened in a new window by “clicking” on it with the right mouse button).
If desired, this picture can be printed and given to the child to color.

At the end of my story I want to offer you make a craft.
With your child, choose some hibernating animal. Maybe it will be a bear, a chipmunk, a hedgehog or a snake, or maybe a sand gopher or an animal with the telling name dormouse? Find out in the encyclopedia or the Internet how he arranges a place for hibernation. And try to make this “bedroom” with your own hands. If you wish, post the craft on your blog and leave a link to it here in the comments. It will be interesting to come visit you and see what you can come up with :)
Katya, for example, chose a hamster. We learned that hamsters build very complex burrows, with holes, numerous storage areas and different chambers. They line their winter nest with soft straw. We didn’t have straw, so Katya simply cut strips of yellowish paper. Here's what kind of nest she made for the hamster's hibernation:

And I also want to give a little a list of cartoons that tell about how fairy-tale animals hibernate.

Distinctive features

The brown bear is a large animal. Individuals living in the European part of the continent reach 1.4 - 2 m and weigh up to 400 kg. Bears in Kamchatka and Alaska can weigh up to 1000 kg. Such a giant, standing on its hind legs, has a height of up to 3 m.

The body of a brown bear is powerful. The head is massive, with small eyes and ears, high withers, thick fur, wide set and short tail - the typical appearance of a brown dog (up to 10 cm long) does not hide on powerful five-toed paws.

Bears are plantigrade animals. If necessary, speed up to 40-50 km/h for a short time. Water obstacles can be overcome with ease. You won't be able to hide in a tree from an angry bear.

Their diet is dominated by plant foods (¾). First of all, these are berries, acorns, nuts, roots and tubers of plants, as well as their succulent stems. It is this feature that is decisive in understanding why a bear hibernates in harsh times. As for color, the main color is brown. The shade of the coat can differ significantly even among individuals living in the same territory (from black, fawn-gray and gray to reddish-brown).

Lifestyle

Bears define their territories and mark the boundaries with marks. It is believed that they live sedentary lives, although they can migrate in search of more suitable feeding places. In early spring, they look for clearings where the snow melts and the ground thaws faster. During the period of midge activity, they can leave the forest thicket to open places. During spawning, they make trips to rivers to hunt for fish in shallow water.

But they cannot move to the southern regions during winter - this is another good reason for understanding why bears hibernate in winter. They lead and are forced to return to traditional habitats. With the arrival of autumn, it becomes more and more difficult to find food - you have to look for a way to wait out the cold.

The ability to fall asleep in cold weather is also characteristic of other animals. By the way, not only the winter period causes hibernation. In desert areas, small rodents can enter a sleepy state even in the summer, during periods of drought. Under unfavorable conditions, their unplanned hibernation can last until spring.

A brown bear cannot afford such a long rest. The period of its hibernation can range from 2.5 to 6 months. But sometimes it lasts longer if circumstances require it. The question of why a brown bear hibernates and does not stockpile roots, nuts and acorns for the winter is difficult to answer. Apparently, he prefers to store them in the form of subcutaneous fat - it’s more reliable and warmer.

It is necessary to clearly understand why the bear hibernates. This is caused by the only way animals can survive in winter. At the same time, it is worth noting that individuals living in southern regions with a sufficient food supply can do without seasonal sleep all year round.

It is also worth dispelling the myth about the supposed ability of bears to suck their paws and thus eat in the winter. This habit, as experts say, is associated with the peculiarity of the molting of the soles of bears. it gets off them during its stay in the den. This occurs due to lack of movement and load. Young and delicate skin on the soles freezes. Therefore, bears warm it with their breath and lick it with their warm tongue.

Connecting rods: why the bear hibernates in winter

What happens if you wake up an animal in its den? Hibernation of bears is superficial. A disturbed animal will wake up and be able to quickly react to danger or a sudden change in conditions. As a rule, an awakened bear will look for a new den if the old one is unsuitable for sleeping.

In this case, why does the brown bear hibernate again in winter, rather than wait for spring? This is the easiest way to survive. But there are situations when, for various reasons, animals do not gain enough fat over the summer. They cannot lie in a den in this state until spring. Hunger forces them to leave the den and go in search of food. He cannot find roots, nuts, acorns and other edibles under the snow. The only way to survive is to engage in predation.

Under such circumstances, the bear decides to attack weakened animals and even predators. He is ready to take prey from wolves and foxes, there is carrion. It can enter surrounding settlements, destroy apiaries, and attack livestock and people. A meeting between a person and a hungry connecting rod bear can end sadly - this must be remembered and understood.

Hibernation (hibernation) is a slowdown in vital processes and metabolism for a certain period of time. At the same time, body temperature decreases, breathing and pulse slow down, nervous activity and other body processes are inhibited.

During the winter, many animals find it difficult to find food for themselves and they choose this method of survival in order to survive until warmer days. Before hibernation, they feed with a vengeance, thus accumulating the energy they need during the hibernation period.

Animal hibernation is nature’s perfect way to save its offspring from conditions unusual for their normal life.

There are a huge variety of animals that hibernate in winter. Most of them live in a temperate climate, characterized by warm summers and cold winters, during which it is difficult for them to find food. Some of them will be discussed below.

Bear

The most famous member of the animal kingdom that hibernates in winter is the bear. It should be noted that its hibernation is considered shallow. It's more like a nap. Its body temperature does not become as low as that of other animals in true hibernation. The same goes for his heartbeat. This means that if you try to touch him in this state, he can wake up very quickly and immediately begin a fight. Bears are animals that hibernate in winter without losing their orientation in space and time.

However, bears can remain in this state without touching food or water for seven months. This becomes possible thanks to the fat accumulated over the summer, the layer of which can reach 15 cm. In the summer, a bear not only eats food, it brutally overeats. This process is somewhat reminiscent of fattening a pig, and is also equal to 30 full meals eaten per day by a person.

Common hedgehog

Hedgehogs are engaged in active life from 4 to 7 months, dividing this period into three stages: awakening, reproduction of offspring, preparation for long hibernation. With the onset of cold weather, they hibernate. The main reason for this phenomenon for hedgehogs is lack of food, the secondary reason is cold. They do not store food for the winter because they feed on insects. Therefore, they have to store up fat in the summer season and hibernate in the winter. In addition, their thermoregulation is imperfect, which leads to the need for prolonged winter torpor.

Gophers

In terms of hibernation, gophers are among the animals that are in a state of torpor for the longest time, to be more precise, up to nine months a year. Moreover, the cyclical nature of their stay in this state is noted. A short active period of life alternates with long-term torpor, after which active life begins again. It is replaced by prolonged hibernation, etc. This feature of their body is hereditary.

frogs

Frogs, in comparison with animals that hibernate or are in torpor, can be in a state of deeper suppression of vital activity - in suspended animation. At the same time, their metabolism slows down as much as possible, and survival is carried out at the expense of internal energy reserves. Depending on the species, frogs can hibernate in burrows they have dug, in crevices that they themselves fill with leaves, and also at the bottom of reservoirs.

The bats

In winter, bats, having found a suitable shelter, fall into torpor for 7-8 months. Their sleep is interrupted every 2-3 weeks by awakenings to search for warmer shelter and matchmaking, since winter for these animals is the period of reproduction.

Animals that hibernate also include rodents, Australian echidnas, Chilean opossums, hamsters, dormice, chipmunks and badgers.

Greetings, dear friends, on the pages of the ShkolaLa blog! My name is Evgenia Klimkovich and I invite you for another portion of useful and interesting information that will certainly be useful to you for preparing projects on the world around you.

Today we’ll talk about which animals hibernate in winter.

Let's try to make our own list, TOP 5 sleepy animals.

We learn that winter sleep can be different.

And let's figure out why animals generally go to bed for so long? This is probably where we'll start.

Lesson plan:

Why sleep for so long?

There are two main reasons for this:

Getting cold.
Getting hungry.

Animals that love to sleep live mainly in those places on earth where it gets quite cold in the winter. Where snow falls and because of this the food that animals eat disappears. They also exist in Russia.

And here the question arises. Why then don’t all animals fall asleep? For example, hares gallop through the forest all winter in white fur coats. Or foxes, they don’t go to sleep either.

Let's think about it.

What do hares eat? In summer they eat herbs, berries, seeds, and do not refuse mushrooms and young shoots of bushes.

And in winter, when all of the above cannot be found under the snow, bunnies eat fallen tree branches, stems sticking out from under the snow, gnaw the bark from the trunks and chew dry grass that they manage to dig up.

Well, foxes, they hunt both in summer and winter. The same hares, birds, mice, sometimes raid chicken coops.

In addition, these animals change their coats to warmer ones closer to winter. And therefore, although it is difficult for them to survive in winter, it is possible.

But the poor frog doesn’t even have a fur coat in the summer, so she can’t survive the cold. So I have to go to bed.

Some animals are able to travel long distances in search of food. This is, for example, what reindeer do when their habitat runs out of moss lichen, the main food for reindeer.

What about hedgehogs, for example? By the time they run somewhere on their short legs, winter will be over.

Migratory birds escape cold and hunger by flying to warmer regions.

And if gophers could fly, then they too would fly after the birds. But, as you know, they cannot fly. And so they also have to hibernate.

Did you know that animals sleep differently?

Types of winter sleep

Animals are all different and therefore they sleep differently in winter too. There are three types of winter sleep:

Hibernation.
Numbness.
Anabiosis.

Hibernation

Hibernation is scientifically called “hibernation.”

Deep sleep, during which all processes in the animal’s body change:

heartbeat and breathing slow down;
body temperature decreases;
Nervous activity is inhibited.

Numbness

An animal that has fallen into a stupor is completely motionless, and all its vital signs sharply decrease. And often the animal’s body temperature is only slightly different from the ambient temperature.

Anabiosis

"Cryptography" comes from a Greek word meaning "return to life"

Compared to torpor and hibernation, anabiosis is a deeper slowdown of all life processes. An animal in a state of suspended animation can easily be mistaken for dead, since its heartbeat and breathing are so slow that they can only be detected using special equipment.

And now I present the top 5 well-known animals that hibernate. Let's start with the well-known brown bear.

Brown bear

Since the junior group of kindergarten, we all know that a bear sleeps in a den in winter and sucks its paw. Is this really true? Well, about the paw, of course, this is fiction. But about sleep – it’s true.

Moreover, the bear begins to prepare for its long sleep in the summer. He switches to an enhanced diet in order to accumulate more subcutaneous fat, the layer of which can reach 10 cm by autumn. There should be enough nutrients, because during hibernation bears do not eat or drink.

Bears eat sweet forest berries, roots, and honey from wild bees. They love to eat fish or ants, as well as small animals.

But accumulating fat is not the only concern of bears before bed. You still need to find a place to hibernate and set up a den. For dens, bears choose places that are dry, warm and protected from possible invasion by enemies.

A bear can make a den:

between tree roots;
in a hollow;
in an old anthill;
in the dugout he dug.

And sometimes a bear builds a riding den from tree branches, it resembles a large nest. In order to sleep comfortably and warmly, the bear lines the bottom of the den with moss and spruce branches.

When does a bear go to bed? Between November and December. The further north and colder the bear’s habitat, the earlier it climbs into its den.

This is interesting! Pregnant bears and mothers with cubs go to bed first.

Well, bears wake up between the end of February and April.

Bears' sleep is not that deep. In the den he turns over from side to side, you can wake him up. The she-bear wakes up on her own in winter in order to give birth to cubs and feed them in a cozy and safe den with her milk.

During hibernation, a bear's body temperature decreases slightly, by only 5 degrees. And the heart beats at a speed of 10 beats per minute.

It also happens that a bear does not have time to prepare for winter. Does not gain the required fat reserves or does not set up a den. Then he does not hibernate, and walks through the forest all winter, hungry, angry and very dangerous. This kind of bear is called a connecting rod. And it’s better not to meet with him.

Do you want to know which animal other than the bear falls into winter sleep? Then read on)

Hedgehog

Do hedgehogs really hibernate? Absolutely right, they are falling! And not just hibernation, but real numbness. At the same time, their body temperature drops from the usual 34 degrees to 1, and the number of heartbeats is reduced to a minimum.

In order to understand why a hedgehog sleeps in winter, you need to get acquainted with its diet. So, our prickly friend’s favorite dishes are:

worms;
slugs;
snails;
frogs;
beetles;

These are mainly insects that the hedgehog cannot store for future use, such as squirrel nuts.

Hedgehogs can also eat snakes, even poisonous ones. The poison has no effect on them. Scientists still cannot understand why this happens.

And due to the fact that there is no food for hedgehogs in winter, they go to bed. But first they carefully prepare for this. The hedgehog, like the bear, tries to eat more in order to accumulate fat, and looks for a hole in some secluded place.

The hole must be about 1.5 meters deep. Otherwise it will be very cold there and the hedgehog will simply freeze. The animal lines the bottom of the hole with dry grass and compacts it thoroughly. Then it blocks the entrance to the hole, curls up into a ball and falls into a stupor. The colder it gets outside, the deeper the hedgehog's torpor.

In this state, a hedgehog can stay up to 240 days without food or water. Well, when it gets warmer outside in the spring, the hedgehog comes out of his stupor and gets out of his hole.

Bat

Another big lover of insects, which is forced to hibernate in winter due to lack of food and low temperatures.

Some species of bats, like migratory birds, fly to warmer climes, but most species remain to winter where they hunt in the summer.

For their winter sleep, bats choose places where the air temperature, even in winter, does not drop below 7 degrees. Where the humidity is quite high and there are no drafts. These can be caves, mines, dungeons, tree hollows, attics and basements of houses.

The bat sleeps, tightly clinging its paws to the ceiling or wall.

Body temperature during this period decreases significantly, as does the number of heartbeats per minute. Moreover, if it becomes too cold in the wintering place, or if someone disturbs the animals, they emerge from suspended animation and move to a more suitable place, where they fall asleep again.

Mice can remain in this sleepy state for up to 6-8 months.

This is interesting! It is not easy for bats to find a place to hibernate. Therefore, they remember good places where they have already spent the winter and return there again.

Frog

How do well-known frogs survive the harsh winter? It is impossible to give one answer here. There are about 500 species of frogs. And they winter differently.

The bullfrog, for example, sinks to the bottom of the lake and buries itself in the mud. It sits like that all winter. Her body temperature drops greatly. She doesn't eat, drink or even breathe oxygen.

The question arises, how does a frog breathe? And why doesn't she die without air? The fact is that in this state the frog does not need to waste energy, and therefore it practically does not need oxygen. And the small amount of oxygen that is needed penetrates through the skin.

The bullfrog emerges from suspended animation when the ice on the surface of the lake melts. She just couldn't get out before. Well, since lakes rarely freeze to the very bottom, the frog stays all winter in a kind of thermos, which does not allow it to freeze completely.

But not all frogs spend the winter in water. There are also those who make their “bed” on the shore. Under snags, under stones. When winter comes, these frogs go into deep suspended animation. It even happens that their body temperature drops below zero degrees.

This animal looks just like a dead one. But if you warm the frog, it will come to life.

Gopher

The one who loves to sleep is the gopher. A relative of the squirrel. In winter, he falls into torpor and can remain in this state for more than 6 months. But the most interesting thing is that if in the summer the gopher does not have enough food, then it can go into summer hibernation.

Summer hibernation is scientifically called “estivation.”

Gophers feed on roots and leaves of plants, grasses, grains, and seeds.

Gophers are excellent diggers. They dig holes up to 3 meters deep. Well, the length of such a mink can reach 15 meters. A nest is made in the mink, which is lined with grass and leaves. In this nest, gophers give birth and sleep in winter.

The animals sleep sitting on their hind legs, they lower their heads to their bellies and cover themselves with their tails. And they sleep very deeply. Neither a loud sound nor slight warming can wake them up.

A sleeping gopher is completely cold to the touch, its feet turn white. If in a state of wakefulness the gopher inhales 150 times per minute, then in a stupor it is only 1 time in 8 minutes. And the body temperature drops very much, sometimes down to – 3 degrees.

During hibernation, gophers lose up to half their weight. Therefore, animals must eat well before a long sleep in order to accumulate more fat and muscle mass. Otherwise, you may not survive the winter.

What can you add to the project to make it even more beautiful? For example, poems about wintering animals. You can hear some of them in one of the episodes of the “Visiting Dunyasha” program, which I found for you.

There is much more interesting for you on the blog. For example, in you can get to know the owner of the mountains better - the snow leopard, and you will find a lot of fascinating information about the cockchafer.

That's all for today!

I wish you a fun learning experience!

Evgenia Klimkovich.

It's no secret that bears sleep in winter. This is perhaps one of the most famous and interesting features of bears. But why do bears sleep in winter, and how exactly does this happen?

Reasons for bear hibernation

Not all bears hibernate, but only those that live in regions with long, cold winters and a lot of snowfall.

The main reason for bears' winter sleep is related to their diet. The fact is that bears are extremely large animals, the weight of some representatives reaches 700 kg.

Such a huge animal requires a lot of food. Despite the fact that the bear is practically omnivorous, with the onset of cold weather it has great difficulty in obtaining food. It is almost impossible to find plant food under a layer of snow, and hunting in winter is much more difficult.

In addition, in cold weather, energy costs increase significantly, because the animal also needs energy for heating.

That is why, with the onset of cold weather, bears choose a safe place and go to bed. Hibernation can last from 4 to 6 months. All this time, the bear subsists on subcutaneous fat reserves accumulated over the summer.

During hibernation, the animal's body works differently. Energy requirements are reduced to a minimum, the breathing rate changes, which allows you to save air in the den. In this state, a bear can sleep for many months without endangering its life. In the dens of female bears, cubs appear, which spend the winter with her, feeding on her milk.

Bears are very light sleepers, so even the slightest noise can wake them up. A hungry, sleep-deprived bear is a serious threat to forest peace. Crank bears are very aggressive and ferocious.

Not all types of bears sleep in winter. For example, among Arctic polar bears, only pregnant bears and females with cubs hibernate - their energy costs are very high. The males remain awake, eating nutritious seal fat and meat.

You may also find these articles useful.

Who waits out summer rather than winter in a dream, what birds hibernate and other amazing facts.

In the fairy tale, due to the machinations of an evil witch, the beautiful princess pricked herself with a spindle and fell into a deep sleep for many years. No matter how magical fairy tales are, reality is more amazing than fantasy. Hibernation is one of the adaptation mechanisms that animals have developed to survive in unfavorable conditions. This is not just a deep and long sleep, it is rather a “little death.” Body temperature drops, sometimes even below 0 °C. Metabolism slows down sharply, sometimes adjusting to help the animal cope with prolonged exposure to low temperatures. Introducing ten hibernating animals that are every bit as good as the fairytale sleeping beauty.

Alpine marmot

“Sleeps like a groundhog” - they say about a person sleeping soundly. This is both true and false at the same time. The groundhog is truly one of those animals that prefer to wait out the winter, plunging into sweet dreams. Hibernation lasts about six to seven months, during which the groundhog does not eat or drink, making do exclusively with internal reserves accumulated over the summer. Marmots spend the winter in burrows as a whole family: in the center, where it will be warmest, young individuals go to sleep, and adult animals are located around them. Typically, marmots wake up at the same time every two weeks to get themselves in order, and also fall asleep synchronously again. But if it gets very cold, animals wake up out of schedule in order to use the heat of their bodies to increase the air temperature in the hole.

American spadefoot

These tiny amphibians, native to the arid regions of North America, could easily be mistaken for ordinary frogs, if not for the amazing structure of their limbs. Unlike other animals that hibernate in winter, spadefoots spend the hot months in sweet dreams, when all living things suffer from a lack of moisture. They hide underground, burrowing into soft soil at the bottom of ponds and streams. To do this, in the process of evolution, spadefoots acquired hard growths on their legs, thanks to which they turned into an excellent working tool, and the amphibians themselves received their name.

Gray mouse lemur

Situated in the tropics, Madagascar would hardly be suspected of having such a harsh climate that animals would be forced to hibernate. However, the gray mouse lemur is so delicate that it resorts to this adaptation mechanism, completely atypical for primates, during the relatively cold and dry Madagascar winter. These animals prefer to get food alone, but relax in the company of their own kind. It is interesting that only females gather in groups to hibernate, but males spend the winter in splendid isolation.

Hummingbird

Hummingbirds are undoubtedly the “best” among birds. The smallest birds can fly backwards, and they flap their wings so quickly that they make a buzzing sound, just like insects. Hummingbirds feed on nectar and small insects, which they obtain by hovering over the flower like butterflies. These birds have a truly high-speed metabolism: they need to eat every 20 minutes. In the dark, this becomes impossible, and in order to survive the night, hummingbirds not only fall asleep, but fall into a state of suspended animation: body temperature drops from 42 ° C to 16 ° C, the heart beats at a frequency of 20 beats per minute instead of 500. Life in the tiny body freezes to be reborn with the first rays of the sun.

American wood frog

In winter, wood frogs that live in Canada and the northern United States look more like skillfully carved figures from variegated jasper, covered with openwork lace made of ice and snow. It's hard to believe that they will come to life once you warm them up. The main threat that cold poses to animals is that fluid in the body turns into ice crystals, which destroy cells. Warm-blooded animals solve the problem by simply maintaining their body temperature above 0 °C, but cold-blooded animals had to turn into real chemical factories for the production of cryoprotectants. Thus, on the eve of winter, the American wood frog not only increases the level of urea in the blood, known for its antifreeze properties, but also accumulates glycogen in the liver. When it gets colder, glycogen begins to turn into glucose. The frog is literally soaked in sugar syrup, which lowers the freezing point (as you know, jam does not freeze). Thanks to these tricks, ice forms only around the cells, and not inside them, which allows wood frogs to successfully tolerate low temperatures.

Siberian salamander

Another amphibian that has learned to wait out the cold in a frozen state without harming itself. Only in this case, nature decided to use not glucose as a cryoprotectant, but glycerin, the substance from which the first antifreezes for cars were made. The newt-like salamander is the only amphibian that has mastered the permafrost zone. On the eve of winter, the salamander's liver begins to intensively produce glycerol, which permeates all tissues. Thanks to this, the amphibian is able to hibernate for months and even years. Thus, scientists successfully defrosted a salamander that had been lying in frozen ground for more than 90 years.

Brown bear

Perhaps the most famous dormouse from the world of mammals. Strictly speaking, brown bears do not hibernate, which is more like death, but plunge into deep winter sleep. The bear's body temperature decreases slightly, the bear tosses and turns, and the she-bear even wakes up to give birth to cubs. For this reason, although biological processes are greatly slowed down, metabolism still occurs and waste is produced as a result. In a normal situation, this does not pose a problem, but not in a cramped den, fenced off from the world, in which it is necessary to maintain cleanliness. Recent research has shown that brown bears have found an ingenious way out of the situation by developing a recycling mechanism. Urea from the bladder enters the blood and returns to the intestines, where it is converted into ammonia, which is already used in the liver to form amino acids - the basis of proteins. A good help for the thick layer of fat that bears fatten up in preparation for winter.

Forest hedgehog

Common forest hedgehogs hibernate only in places with a harsh climate. Moreover, if in females the duration of hibernation depends on air temperature and the availability of food, as in other animals, then males are more sensitive to the level of testosterone in the blood. A decrease in the level of this hormone provokes hibernation, and an increase - a return to an active state. At the same time, in hedgehogs, the level of testosterone is tied to the level of melatonin, which, in turn, depends on the length of daylight hours. However, it is not yet entirely clear how hedgehogs, being deep underground, assess the situation on the surface: daylight hours, ambient temperature and the availability of food. Perhaps this is why they take breaks from hibernation.

They sleep intermittently for 5-10 days, after which they lead an active life for the same amount of time. When they sleep, their body temperature drops to 22 ° C, although it is usually 36 ° C. And bob-tailed marsupial rats living in Tasmania are the only ones of the few that sleep for 6-12 days in winter, curled up in a hollow tree. Rodents, insectivores and bats are those animals that hibernate in winter. These include chipmunks, marmots, dormouses and hamsters; the hedgehog is one of the most famous sleepers.

The hedgehog spends the cold season curled up in its nest. The mountain bat spends the winter in deep, damp caves. Wrapped in their leathery wings, horseshoe bats sleep underground in winter. Brown and black bears hibernate during winter. Only some mammals go into true hibernation. During this period, the body temperature reaches a little more than 0 ° C, but animals can produce so much energy that, when necessary, they “return to life.”

Winter dream

Some animals, such as badgers, sleep in their burrows for most of the winter, but these animals do not truly hibernate. Their metabolism decreases, but not by much. The heart rate is reduced to 10-12 beats per minute, and the body temperature is kept at 30 ° C, that is, they do not fall into the characteristic state of lethargy. If their body temperature dropped, it would mean certain death for them.

Raccoons and skunks also sleep in winter, but they, like badgers, maintain a high body temperature.

Sleep is different from hibernation.

Warm-blooded animals hibernate to survive the hungry and most unfavorable times. Therefore, they hibernate to conserve precious energy. The body temperature of animals decreases greatly, digestion stops, the heartbeat decreases, and breathing becomes less frequent.

Hibernation

Small warm-blooded mammals, such as the marmot, chipmunk and ground squirrel, maintain a temperature of approximately 37.3 ° C during the summer months, and this is independent of ambient temperature. The heart rate under normal conditions is about 88 beats per minute, and breathing is 16 breaths per minute. At the beginning of winter, when the temperature drops below 15 ° C, the marmot curls up in its hole and hibernates.
photo: Ben Dunster

The saying “sleeps like a groundhog” did not appear by chance - after all, these animals sleep from 6 to 8 months a year. Hibernation is deep sleep, during which the animal loses control over its body temperature. The animal regularly wakes up from hibernation only to defecate, or in a very critical situation, for example, if the nest is flooded with water or the animal’s life is threatened by another danger. that sleeps, takes only two breaths per minute, its heart can only beat once every 12 seconds, and sometimes even stop for a whole minute.

In winter, the development of most plants stops, and cold-blooded animals fall into a state of torpor. Warm-blooded animals, birds and mammals, cannot respond to environmental changes in this way. Some of the animals survive in the icy desert of Antarctica, but they have to keep their body temperature at a constant level, since reducing it would mean death.

For warm-blooded animals, it is very important to maintain a constant temperature, since it is always higher than the ambient temperature. To maintain temperature, the animal needs food, which becomes difficult to obtain in winter. Many birds solve this problem in their own way - they...

Large ones, such as reindeer, also migrate to the southern regions. For small mammals such travel is impossible.

Many animals living in polar regions grow thick fur during the winter, which protects them from the bitter cold. Eskimo dogs have such thick and warm fur that they can sleep in the snow even at an air temperature of -30 ° C. Small animals lose heat faster than they produce it. For example, a mouse uses twice as much energy as a sheep.

Therefore, many small animals build very well-protected warm nests. To maintain body temperature at +37 ° C, mammals must eat regularly. Animals often store fat to help them survive times of famine. Many animals have a chance of survival only when they reduce their energy use to a minimum, so that it is enough to survive during hibernation.

A small animal that has spread across Europe. As soon as the air temperature drops below 15 ° C, she climbs into her nest, curls up and falls asleep.

Sometimes they wake up

Some animals sometimes wake up during winter sleep. Bats sleep longer without interruption, but their sleep lasts no more than a month. From time to time they wake up and, having moved to another place, fall asleep again. Some species even catch insects in their wintering grounds. The hedgehog sleeps for no more than 2-3 weeks, and then wakes up for a short time. Frequent awakenings during warm winters do not benefit the hedgehog, since in this case fat reserves are used up faster. Other insectivores, for example, the little shrew, which weighs 2 g, are an example of the other extreme: in cold weather they fall into a state of torpor for several hours. However, this is not true hibernation.

The vital activity of an animal that is sleeping does not decrease as much as during hibernation. This is evidenced by the fact that a bear wakes up in the middle of winter and leaves the den, and then returns to “get some sleep.” The mother bear gives birth to cubs, and she takes care of them. In a state of torpor, some animals remain completely motionless, even if you move them. Others wake up momentarily if their sleep is disturbed. The first signs of awakening are movement and trembling in the limbs, due to which the body temperature gradually rises. To keep warm, the animal uses a lot of energy.

Once upon a time, in ancient times, people believed that in winter swallows hide under water and sleep at the bottom of a pond or river. Nowadays, it is known that these birds fly to the southern regions with the onset of autumn, since there are no flying insects at their nesting sites in winter - the main food for birds. However, it turned out that Some species of birds still hibernate, at least for a short time.

The American white-throated nightjar feeds on insects. There are no flying insects in winter, so this bird hibernates to conserve precious energy. For a short time, the nightjar's body temperature drops to about 6 ° C, whereas it is usually about 40 ° C. Many species of hummingbirds fall into a torpor at night, reminiscent of hibernation. At this time, their body temperature drops to 8-9 ° C. It is known that hummingbirds spend a lot of energy, so they have a very intense metabolism: during the day they absorb an amount of food that is twice their weight.

If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.

For all representatives of the animal world, the day is divided into phases of active wakefulness and rest. Man, by the way, is no exception either. However, some animals also go into seasonal hibernation. It's hard for us people to imagine what does it feel like to sleep soundly for months, but bears, many rodents and frogs take such things casually. Let's figure out why animals hibernate.

How does this happen?

Hibernation is not just a long sleep, but a certain state of the body that helps to survive the winter. During hibernation, an animal's metabolism slows down significantly. However, this also applies to all other processes. Body temperature sometimes drops even to sub-zero temperatures. Breathing may slow down to 1-2 breaths per minute. The heart can also only beat a few times per minute. All nutrients are thus consumed much more economically, so the animal can survive for several months only on internal resources.

Each cell of the body begins to use energy more economically.

In most species, the body is in a state of torpor during this period so that energy is not wasted on unnecessary muscle contractions. If you find a gopher hibernating, it may well be mistaken for dead.

And this is not the entire list

Animals in northern regions hibernate in winter, and in dry regions in summer. Thus, it is clear that hibernation helps them survive the most difficult time of the year.

Hibernation can also be daily. Hummingbirds and bats flow into it.

And some animals can hibernate when unfavorable conditions suddenly occur. For example, when a period of prolonged rains has begun, and it is difficult to get food, you can wait out some time in hibernation.

By the way, one of the primates hibernates. We are talking about the idea of a dwarf lemur from Madagascar. He sleeps in his hollow for about seven months (!). Quite strange, because in those parts the temperature in winter is about 30 degrees Celsius. However The Colombian ground squirrel is considered the record holder for hibernation., who begins his marathon in the summer and wakes up only in the spring.

Why do animals need hibernation?

Everything is quite prosaic - a state of hibernation is needed to survive a hungry winter.

Of course, not all animals survive the winter in hibernation. They can be killed by extremely low temperatures, exhaustion, or simply a predator accidentally finding their hiding place.

How do animals survive without food during hibernation?

Stocks! It is food prepared in advance that helps animals survive the winter. But they are fast asleep! In fact, at certain intervals, small animals still wake up to eat and drink water.

Supplies are very important for rodents

But bears do without all this. The fat layer accumulated during the preparation period not only provides them with nutrients during hibernation, but also helps maintain a certain body temperature. The bear does not urinate, so fluid loss is minimal. The water balance in his body is maintained by burning fat. Bears wake up much less often. Most often, they sleep soundly all winter.

Contrary to popular belief the bear sucks its paw not because of hunger, but in order to moisturize dry feet and nibble on dead skin.

We need to prepare!

Animals spend a lot of time preparing for hibernation, because they not only need to stock up on nutrients, but also arrange your home so that a certain microclimate is maintained there.

Rodent burrows can be up to 3 meters deep. Grains, nuts and seeds are stored there, which will help maintain vitality. An entire family of rodents can overwinter in one shelter.

Every hollow, den, and burrow must be safe and inaccessible to predators, and the temperature must remain above zero, even if there is severe frost outside. The temperature in the home will correspond to the body temperature of many hibernating animals. So it's not that simple.

The easiest situation is for the dalia fish, which does not need to take care of its home. She feels great in the frozen lake. The unique structure of the tissues protects this fish from freezing, and when the ice melts, it continues its life activity.

Bears are perhaps the most picky in terms of housing. These comrades can simply bury themselves in the leaves, and in winter they are covered with snow. So be careful, because one of the snowdrifts may turn out to be a sleeping bear, and they do not sleep so soundly. It will be especially bad for you if you come across a clubfoot closer to spring, because he will be very hungry. Probably because their sleep is not deep, bears are not particularly worried about a safe home. Everyone already knows how unsafe it is to wake them up in winter.

By the way, you should read ““. At the same time, you will find out how animals react to tickling.

Why do some animals fall into matches and others do not?

Each species has adapted to winter in its own way. Migratory birds (yes, yes, they are not animals), without thinking twice, fly away to more comfortable places for wintering. The body of some animals is preparing for an active winter. An example of this is hares, which change their color to white for camouflage purposes and grow fur on the pads of their paws to make it easier to move on ice and snow. Squirrels simply fill their hole with enough supplies for the winter. Many insects, having laid eggs until spring, simply die.

In winter conditions, the same bear would spend a lot of energy searching for food, moving through snowdrifts, and simply resisting frost. The food found would not always replenish lost strength, and the survival of the bear would be in question. He cannot move to other warmer regions, and in order to collect enough supplies for the winter, the bear would need a huge den. Therefore, the most acceptable option for him, as for many other species, is hibernation. Their usual activity in winter conditions would be lethal.

Since we are talking about bears, some scientists say that their hibernation cannot be called complete. The processes in the clubfoot’s body do not slow down as much as in the same rodents. And his body temperature does not drop that much - only 5 degrees. There are ground squirrels whose temperature during hibernation can be about -2 degrees.

Based on the above, Bears' hibernation is called light. This also includes raccoons and badgers. But gophers, hedgehogs, jerboas and many others fall into true hibernation, when their body becomes completely numb.

Animal hibernation is a perfect way, invented by nature, to save its offspring from conditions unusual for their normal life.

Bear

Common hedgehog