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Why Do Animals Hibernate

Many animals hibernate during winter to conserve energy and avoid freezing temperatures. Bears, badgers, frogs, toads, hedgehogs, and moths store food and enter periods of deep sleep to survive the winter, then resume normal activities when temperatures warm again.

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326 views

Why Do Animals Hibernate

Many animals hibernate during winter to conserve energy and avoid freezing temperatures. Bears, badgers, frogs, toads, hedgehogs, and moths store food and enter periods of deep sleep to survive the winter, then resume normal activities when temperatures warm again.

Uploaded by

jonbelza
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Why do animals hibernate?

There are many animals that undergo deep sleep during winter to protect themselves from the freezing temperature. Given below is a list of animals that become dormant during winter as a method of survival. They resume their life activities once the cold winter months are over.

Badgers are inhabitants of Europe, Asia and North America. They are torpors or temporary hibernators and in winters they store enough food in their burrows, so that they may wake up, eat and go back to sleep again. Badgers are omnivores that are they eat both plants and animals. Honey badgers, one of the types of badgers are found mostly in Africa and Asia and are nocturnal animals.

Bears are a classic example of animals that undergo hibernation. Bears are found everywhere from swamps and mountains to the cold Arctic regions. Before the winter arrives, a bear hunts for an appropriate place to spend the cold months in. Once the place is found, it eats huge quantities of food and stores it in its body in the form of fat. During the months that it sleeps, the bear utilizes the stored fat till the winter is over. Frogs living in colder climates, hibernate in winter in small creeks, cracks in logs and in rocky places. They store glucose in their bodies that keeps them from getting frozen. Some of the species of frogs even hibernate under water. Toads are cold blooded and nocturnal creatures. Their hibernation period begins from October and some toads are known to hibernate for as long as three to four years. They survive on body fat that has been stored in their bodies during the warm months. Hedgehogs are spiny mammals and are found in Europe, Africa, New Zealand and Asia. Usually, hedgehogs maintain a constant body temperature, i.e 35 degree centigrade, during summer but at the onset of winter, their temperature drops to 6 degree centigrade in order to cope with the scarcity of food. Hedgehogs go into hibernation for about 2 to 5 months with the males hibernating before the females. Moths are a species of insects that closely resemble a butterfly. These insects have to undergo behavioral and physiological adaptations in order to combat the extreme winter months. The adaptation is different in each stage of the moth's life cycle. The eggs take a longer while to hatch; the caterpillar does not emerge out of the pupa for fear of starvation. Adult moths hibernate in clusters and during the winters they sleep in creeks or cracks in the wood.

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