Hibernating

 

Art by Roxxie Drox

This is the time now when some animals are going into hibernation for Winter. There are quite a number of animals that sleep for months and wake up in the Spring. This is why certain wildlife is hidden away during Winter because they've snuggled up. This is a list of some animals that sleep throughout Winter and who don't need to get up for anything:

Bears, bats, common poorwills (they're the only bird species to hibernate), wood frogs, turtles, bumblebees, snails, hedgehogs, groudhogs, snakes, flat-tailed dwarf lemurs, red squirrels, ground squirrels, woodchucks, female polar bears, prairie dogs, spiders, northern raccoons and lizards including house gecko. 

In that list, some animals don't sleep solidly but are half awake. Why do they do that? Winter is a season when food is scarce. For wild animals to go without food this is a huge problem, but as it's Winter  that causes low food supply, no more fruits, lack of plants to chew, no migrating fish or birds to hunt, and a barren landscape. Filled with cold damp temperatures, as the bitter cold arrives bringing possible snow in various high places, animals don't like to be in really unpleasant conditions. They would be feeling cold and hungry. So their own bodies close down for the Winter in a long sleep, so that they don't need food. 

Certain animals control their own warmth in shelter and dwellings that they make, mostly locating caves, tree hollows, nests and burrowing underground. While these animals sleep solidly throughout Winter, some of them can relax in a semi-hibernation state called torpor. There are animals that simply go into the torpid phase only, and many of them can be due to the conserve of energy for shorter times than hibernating. 

Sweet dreams 🌛

Storm Valkyrie