This does not happen immediately, however. As spring approaches, various indicators in their area, such as warmer temperatures or sunlight, wake them up and quickly resume their normal activities. They also often make a hole in the ground where they sleep to protect themselves from the cold. All of these hormonal responses allow the animal to maintain the necessary body processes while using much less energy than when it is awake.īefore going into hibernation, they usually have huge appetites that allow them to store as much fat as possible so that they can be burned later in their sleep. It takes a few breaths every minute and hardly makes any waste.Īn animal falls into a deep sleep, so to speak, that it is as if it were dead. Their heartbeat slows down and their body temperature drops by several degrees. These signals trigger the release of a hormone (chemical messenger) called the hibernation induction trigger (HIT) that causes major changes in the animal’s body. When it is time for an animal hibernate, the animal responds to one of the other natural phenomena, such as a certain low temperature or a reduction in daylight hours. When an animal hibernates, its body functions such as heartbeat and breathing slows down, sometimes to the point that the animal appears dead. However, hibernation in animals is a complicated physiological event.
During winter, food become scarce for warm-blooded animals.įor some animals, hibernation is an easy way to solve some of the problems caused by winter colds, since they actually sleep during winter and wake up when the weather is mild. Winter is difficult for warm-blooded animals (those that maintain a constant internal temperature despite their environment), since they have to use most of their energy to stay warm. The constant, severe cold that comes with winter poses a problem for animals that cannot escape (by migrating or leaving) or adapting to it (such as growing a thick fur or a layer of fat). Why do animals hibernate?Īll animals have different survival strategies that allow them to survive in difficult or life-threatening situations. Hibernation in animals is a cyclic behavior and is caused by different cues in an animal’s environment. Hibernation lowers the animal’s energy needs and allows it to survive on stored fat and should not search for food. A common way to explain hibernation in animals is a long-term condition in which the body temperature drops dramatically, metabolism slows down and the animal enters a state of comalike condition that takes some time to recover or you can put it this way, hibernation is a special kind of deep sleep that enables an animal to survive the extreme winter cold.
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