What is hibernation

Hibernation its types and examples.

1. What is Hibernation? Hibernation is the way that some animals adopt to the climate and land around them during winter. A hibernating animal will enter into a very ‘deep sleep’. While in a state of true hibernation, the animal will appear to be dead. There is no movement and it takes a long time for the animal to wake up.

2. When an animal hibernate its: breathing and heart rate slow down . and its body temperature goes down for a relatively long period. Because it is a “deep sleep ,”. R eturning from hibernation may take a few hours.

3. Preparation for the hibernation: As preparation for the hibernation stage: animals accumulate fat in autumn. The stored fat will be used when the temperature gets colder in the winter. Hibernation is not a continuous process. Some animals may wake up from hibernation to eat, drink.

4. Animal also wake up clean themselves, and then go back to inactivity. Some animals may hibernate anywhere from a few days to several months. Common animals that hibernate are bears, mouse lemurs, and ground squirrels . Why Do Animals Hibernate? It’s COLD . Hibernation allows the animal to sleep through the intense cold of winter. Scarcity of food and resources.

5. How Do They Survive? All Animals require energy to do things such as walk, run, and hunt for food. Animals also need energy to run the basic functions of the body, such as respiration, metabolism, etc. It is how an animal is able to store and utilize this energy .

6. Can All Animals Hibernate? Most animals are not capable of hibernating because they lack the amount of fat. Animals that hibernate also put on another type of fat called “ brown fat”.

7. What is “Brown Fat”? Brown fat, also known as “brown adipose tissue”, is a special type of fat that is found across the back and shoulders of hibernating animals, close to the animal's organs, such as the brain or liver. When an animal wakes from its slumber, brown fat helps to deliver fast energy and heat to the waking animal.

8. Examples: 1. Bats Bats are interesting for so many reasons: They're the only true flying mammals, they navigate using echolocation. They have been around since the dinosaur days and they hibernate. Bats go into a true hibernation , meaning they are in such a deep sleep that they may appear to be dead.

9. . During hibernation, a bat's heart rate drops from 400 to 25 beats per minute, and its breathing slows so much that it might not take a breath for up to an hour. Bats hibernate in the : cavities of large trees. caves. old mine shafts. old wells. Depending on the species of bat, it either hibernates alone or in a group.

10. 2 . Hedgehogs Hedgehogs hibernate anywhere from a few weeks to six months, depending on the weather . During hibernation , their heart rate drops almost 90 percent. They wake briefly if their body temperatures drop too low and let their waking heart rate warm their bodies up before going back into hibernation.

11. 3 . Ground Squirrels Most types of ground squirrels hibernate and some do so for nine months a year . They also torpor (light hibernation) during other times of the year for a few days at a time. Ground squirrels have great hibernation spaces. They dig elaborate underground tunnels with different rooms for food storage, sleep and elimination (yes, they have bathrooms).

12. Estivation also called “aestivation ,”. Estivation is a strategy used mainly by desert and tropical animals to get through an extremely hot and dry weather. To survive, animals dig into the ground where they remain idle and cool. In doing so : they decrease their metabolic activity. save energy. conserve water in their bodies. And protect themselves from dying due to intense heat and dryness .

13. Examples: 1. snail Some creatures that estivate can rapidly return to their normal condition when there is a need to. Certain snail species can go back to their original state after only ten minutes of estivation . However, some animals are capable of estivation for long periods of time. 2.Lungfish Lungfish can estivate for as long as three years by coating itself with mucus that preserves the moisture inside its cocoon when it is dormant. Lungfish is also a primitive fish that still has lungs so it can breathe without water.

14. 3.When do dolphins estivate ? Dolphins estivate , or sleep, in the summer. They can sleep standing up or bedded down on the ground. Bottle-nosed dolphins sleep during the night, floating about a foot under the water.

15. 4.Hedgehogs Hedgehogs also go into estivation when the weather is really hot. Estivation is like hibernation, except for it takes place during hot weather, instead of cold weather. Other animals that use this technique include crabs, lemurs, crocodiles, and desert hedgehogs.

16. Torpor , Also called “daily torpor,” is a state of short-term and involuntary inactivity an animal goes through to survive and save energy when there is a decreased food supply . It is characterized by : decreased body temperature and slower breathing, heart rate , and metabolic rates .

17. Daily torpor usually lasts less than 24 hours, which is why some people say it is “light hibernation.” “Daily torpor” may happen any time of the year and does not necessarily occur during the winter or summer. When the animal is not torpid, its body temperature and metabolic levels are normal. Animals that go on daily torpor are dormice, birds, marsupials, and bats.

18. Example : 1 . Bears Bears aren’t true hibernators. They are more like light hibernators. Instead of hibernating, bears go into what is called a torpor. The main difference between a torpor and a hibernation is that during a torpor the animal is easily awoken. Bears go into a torpor during the winter months only if they live in cold areas. During their torpor, they don’t eat or drink for about 6 months on average .