Hibernation By Steven Gilio

What is Hibernation? Hibernation is the way that some animals adapt 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.

Why Do Animals Hibernate? It’s COLD. - Hibernation allows the animal to sleep through the intense cold of winter. Scarcity of food and resources.

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 which determines whether or not that animal is capable of hibernating. How do they do it?

How Hibernating Animals Survive the Winter To survive, hibernating animals will spend the Fall eating as much food as they can. They then store this food as body fat which the animal will live off of over the course of the entire winter. In order for this fat to last them the whole winter, the animals must conserve their energy. They are able to do this in a few unique and interesting ways.

How Hibernating Animals Survive the Winter First, the animal will lower its body temperature to a point where it almost matches the cold temperatures outside. At the same time, the animal’s heartbeat and breathing will slow down too. This slowing down of the animal’s metabolism allows them to conserve energy. Finally, the animal will sleep for long lengths of time. Keeping inactive allows the animal to expend the least amount of energy that they possibly can. The energy they conserve by slowing down the functions of the body allows them to survive the whole winter on the stored up fat. It should be noted that while hibernating animals do indeed slow their body down, the functions of the body never quite shut down completely.

How Hibernating Animals Survive the Winter Some other defenses against the winter cold include …. Hibernating animals will build or seek out shelters in the form of dens or burrows where the temperature is less likely to reach temperatures that are below freezing. Other hibernating creatures such as lizards and reptiles will seek shelter in things such as decaying logs and rock crevices. Hibernating animals will often have thick coats of fur which insolate them from the cold weather, and likewise see to it that temperatures don’t get too uncomfortable.

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

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.

So, Who Does Hibernate?

Bears… hiber-NOT!!

Many animals generally believed to hibernate through the winter, such as bears are not “true hibernators”. Bears and other non-hibernating animals are more like “light sleepers”. Such animals breathe a little more slowly and lower their body temperature a few degrees while sleeping, but can be aroused fairly easily. Often these animals will wake up to forage between winter snows.

Female bears even wake up during winter hibernation to give birth. But bears are not the only animals that do not actually hibernate…

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More Frauds… Opossums BUSTED!

Say it ain’t so… Chipmunks! FRAUDS!

Who Can You Trust???

The TRUE Hibernators… Woodchucks Bats

The TRUE Hibernators… And of course… Hedgehogs!

What’s the Difference? Animals that don’t “truly” hibernate, enter into a state known as torpor. As opposed to hibernation, torpor is characterized by shorter periods of inactivity, lasting anywhere from only a few hours to a few days, and sometimes can last several months. It has been found that even true hibernators will periodically wake. The reason why isn’t quite known for sure at this point, but many scientists think that periods of continuous sleep require a constant body temperature; causing the animal to periodically wake and warm up. Animals in a state of torpor also will not experience the dramatic drops in body temperature that true hibernators do.

Human Hibernation??? Mitsutaka Uchikoshi

On October 7, 2006, a Japanese civil servant reportedly went missing after a barbecue on Mt. Rokko in western Japan. When a passing climber found him 24 days later, Mr Uchikoshi's body temperature had fallen to just 22C (72F), he had a barely discernable pulse and he was suffering from multiple organ failure and blood loss. Doctors who treated Mr Uchikoshi believe he lost consciousness after his fall and that his body's natural survival instincts kicked in, sending him into a state akin to hibernation as the temperature on the mountain dropped as low as 10C. Scientists have long said human hibernation is theoretically possible, and could potentially be put to use to slow cell death when treating brain hemorrhaging and other fatal conditions. http://www.guardian.co.uk/japan/story/0,,1976623,00.html#article_continue

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