Hibernation is a certain condition inherent in some animals, during which all life processes in their body slow down. This allows them to go without food for a long time and calmly survive severe frosts.
Instructions
Step 1
Among large animals, bears hibernate in winter. To do this, they prepare a den for themselves since autumn, choosing a safe place in natural ravines, small cozy caves or at the roots of huge trees. To protect themselves from the cold, they insulate their rookery with dry moss, leaves, grass and fluffy spruce branches.
Step 2
In addition, bears eat a lot in late summer and autumn in order to store as much subcutaneous fat as possible for winter. Otherwise, in the middle of winter, the hibernation of this beast can be interrupted by a strong feeling of hunger, as a result of which an evil connecting rod bear will stagger through the forest. A distinctive feature of bear hibernation is a slight decrease in body temperature. In addition, the bear is quite easy to get out of this state.
Step 3
Hamsters, chipmunks and badgers sleep in winter, but their sleep is also quite light. In addition, these animals wake up in the middle of winter to satisfy their hunger with the help of supplies prepared since autumn. And gophers can hibernate not only in winter, but also in summer. In the latter case, it is usually associated with a lack of food. The raccoon also plunges into a long winter sleep.
Step 4
In marmots, hibernation lasts from 4 to 6 months, depending on the climate of the region in which they live. During this time, they do not eat, but they wake up for about 12-20 hours every three weeks. Scientists explain this by the need to stabilize life processes. Nevertheless, marmots come out of hibernation quite well-fed.
Step 5
But in hedgehogs, snakes and frogs, the body temperature decreases during hibernation quite strongly, and the metabolism slows down significantly. Hedgehogs make themselves deep wintering holes in the ground, snakes - in the soil below the freezing zone, in deep cracks in rocks and under stumps. Frogs for wintering are buried in silt or dive into a pond. Their body temperature becomes slightly lower than the environment, which allows them to survive for several winter months. In warm countries, frogs also fall into a seasonal state of suspended animation.
