Before travel by car was easy, relatives coming to stay for the holidays would usually be with you for at least a couple of weeks of feasting and mostly indoor fun. Holiday meals, heavy and sweet, give us lots of calories which was a very good thing in the old days when hard work for everyone was normal. How many people do you see outside on a cold, cold night? How many people on a nice summer's night? Humans may not exactly hibernate, but we do have habits we have developed to cope Going into snug dens in the earth, they eat very little or nothing, having fattened up during the fall months. They are available to be hunted, and they must make do with what forage (food) they can find.Ī natural way for animals to wait out these difficult times is hibernation. Game animals such as deer, turkeys, squirrels, and rabbits do not hibernate. Everyone, including non-industrial humans, is short on food. In colder countries, winter is hard for animals.
Smaller animals whose body temperature does go low-such as the chipmunk-must wake up every so often to take care of these things. These are some of the animals who hibernate or remain dormant (inactive) during the winter:Įven though bears do not have a lower body temperature during the winter, they are very good at staying in their dens, fast asleep without eating, drinking, or going to the bathroom for months at a time. Wasps, snakes, turtles, and Gila monsters are some animals that go dormant. Animals may go dormant because of something usual and natural such as winter weather. Being dormant means that they stop moving around, which saves them energy. Many animals are dormant in the cold weather. But some animals, such as most bears, do not really hibernate. The animal's body temperature drops, its breathing slows, and it is very difficult to awaken.
This unusual, deep sleep is called hibernation. They sleep warmly through winter, awakening in spring ready to enjoy the renewed Earth. Slow, sleepy winter days find many animals curled up in their dens.
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