14 facts about hibernation that show we still have a lot to learn

When the alarm clock goes off on a cold day, many people think it would be great to be a bear inside a cave to sleep without having to worry about working or looking for food. But when bears enter caves, do they really sleep? It may seem so, but what they do is not sleep, but hibernate, a process that few people know how to work.

O awesome.clubalways very curious, discovered 14 super curious facts about animals that hibernate and that most likely you didn’t learn in school.

Contrary to what most people think, animals don’t sleep when they hibernate; they enter a lethargic state that leaves them inactive. But this process is not the same as sleep.

To begin with, during hibernation the metabolism of animals changes so that the greatest amount of energy can be conserved, which also changes body temperature and heart and lung rates. In addition, it is very difficult to get an animal out of this state, which is different from sleep, which, even deep, keeps some unconscious functions active, such as breathing.

While humans live an eternal struggle against the scales, for animals that hibernate, gaining weight is a good and even necessary thing. And that doesn’t happen because they get prettier, but because they use all their accumulated energy storage to survive. The lipids acquired by eating foods with fat function as a large energy reserve. In addition, the fat also warms the animals and helps them to withstand low temperatures. In this sense, if someone judges you for being overweight, just answer that you are storing energy for the winter.

As stated earlier, when entering a state of hibernation, many animals have a reduced heart rate, which also happens with breathing. If you touch the animal, you can feel its cold skin, as its body temperature also drops. The lethargy is such that it is very difficult to wake up an animal in this state.

In this sense, it is important to mention that if you have ever had a guinea pig and if it has ever been hard, static inside the cage during the winter, it is very likely that it was just in a hibernation state. Captive animals don’t usually hibernate, but when the temperature gets lower than usual, they can go into this state. This is easy to verify by checking your breathing, which is much slower than normal. In such cases, it is important for the body to warm up again. And you can do this with your hands or with a heater.

Animals that go through this state decrease their heart rate considerably and only with a lot of effort can we hear their heartbeats. But the case of forest frogs is different: during hibernation they completely stop their heart rate and breathing and are frozen for 6 months. For a human or any other species that has a lung, this is physically impossible. When spring arrives, little by little the heart starts beating again and the frog breathes again. The whole process happens very naturally.

Bears have their young at the beginning of the year, during the hibernation process. This is so the cub can prepare to leave the cave the moment winter is over. And all this is very important because puppies are born blind and hairless; that is, the warmth of mothers is more than necessary for the little ones to survive such low temperatures. Bears are usually the last to leave the caves after hibernation, as they must wait for the cubs to be able to walk on their own.

Yes, they hibernate, but they trick us. While the forest frog freezes to the lungs, the bear has cubs and usually stops sporadically from lethargy. Scientists who researched these animals noticed how in the middle of winter they get up once a day to clean and tidy the space where they sleep.

Not all bears need to hibernate. The panda bear, for example, does not hibernate. When temperatures start to drop, these beautiful animals simply look for somewhere warmer and return when winter is over.

If it’s uncomfortable for us to go to the bathroom at night, imagine for an animal that hibernates for months. Calm down, nature is wiser than you might think. When animals hibernate, their digestion stops and they don’t need to drink. Therefore, they do not feel physiological needs such as urinating or defecating.

These fragile insects are able to migrate to other countries to hibernate. During hibernation, the monarch butterfly diminishes its vital functions. But this is not easy for them because the winds and rains can knock them off the trees. When this occurs, they are unable to take off and die quickly. Those that manage to survive until spring return to their home country. A species with a short life and that lives intensely.

When winter comes, these animals lock themselves in the comfort of their home and don’t come out until the temperature is pleasant. So jealous! Wouldn’t it be amazing to be able to stay at home when it’s very cold, in our warm bed? Snails need to stay moist during this period, so they close the opening of their shell with an extra cover.

It is not for nothing that we say that nature is wise. During the colder months it is common to think that the plants are dead; in fact, they are hibernating. The process takes place when vegetation adapts to its surroundings and ‘programs’ itself to stop growing during the winter. In this sense, plants do not need to create their own cave to hide from the cold; they just enter a resting state until the weather conditions are good for them to grow again.

Like many other animals, reptiles need to prepare their bodies for winter and food shortages. However, unlike hibernation, during brumation reptiles only eat and drink less.

In the same way that some species must struggle to survive the low temperatures of winter, others must endure the heat of summer. Fish, amphibians and reptiles developed the estivation process to protect themselves from drought and heat. As in hibernation, species slow down their metabolism and the heart beats up to 5 times a minute. In addition, the body temperature decreases and follows the ambient temperature.

Groundhog Day is a traditional holiday in the United States and Canada, celebrated on February 2nd. However, the animal is also a kind of indicator used by farmers in these countries to determine the end of winter. They watch when hibernation will end, which means the end of the cold period.

If you were an animal, would you rather hibernate or just rest? And what’s your preference: hot or cold? Share your opinion in the comments.