Why do some animal hibernate?

Answer 1

If I could, I would...

Wouldn't you?

Answer 2

Grizzly black bears, hummingbirds and squirrels hibernate in the winter because a long, chilly season of little food and warmth is no picnic for these animals.

Unlike the warm seasons of spring and summer that provide an unlimited amount of food for these critters, the winter season only provides a cold, frozen ground where food is extremely scarce.

In addition, the wintery days are frigid and short while the hours in the dark night seem to drag on for a chilly eternity. Searching for grub often leaves the stomachs of these animals empty because by the end of their search their bodies end up burning more calories than the animals get back from the food when and if any is found. So instead of starving or freezing to death, these animals decide to pack in all in for the long haul and hibernate during the winter months.

Hibernation helps these animals survive in the roughest and toughest conditions. By hibernating, an animal decreases its body.s energy needs to a bare minimum. Hibernation is a process of lowering an animals body temperature and slowing down its heartbeat into order to conserve energy during times of scarcity and stress.

Every animal hibernates in different ways. While squirrels can wake up every four days to grab a bite to eat and take a trip to the bathroom, black bears can stay dormant, or inactive, for up to seven months with no food, water, or visits to the bathroom.


Midnight~Angel :)

Answer 3

Hibernation in animals has evolved to allow them to survive during the winter months of low temperatures and scarce food.

Hibernating animals either find or make a winter resting place then go into a deep resting state and slow their metabolic rate so that they use less energy. Some sleep through the whole winter and others wake occasionally to eat from a larder of food that they have stored in the summer months.

Answer 4

. Animals hibernate as a means of coping with food scarcity during winter months, usually in those parts of the world affected by seasonality. Whether an animal hibernates or not depends upon how it copes with this temporary food shortage.



Some animals migrate to winter-feeding grounds. Others stay and adapt: the red fox grows a thicker coat and changes its summer diet of fruit and insects to more readily available small rodents.



Lastly, some animals hibernate, decreasing their body's energy needs, and therefore food requirements, to a bare minimum.



Q. What happens to an animal when it hibernates?

A. The animal's body temperature drops to almost freezing and its heartbeat slows down to just a few beats per minute. Hibernating animals are hard to wake and appear to be dead.



To prepare for hibernation an animal eats large amounts of food during late summer and early autumn to build up its fat reserves. Hibernators have two types of fat: white fat and brown fat. White fat acts as food and insulation, whereas brown fat forms patches near the animal's brain, heart and lungs and warms up these vital organs when it's time to wake up.



Q. How does an animal know when to hibernate?

A. The scientists are still out on this one, although some things are known. Hibernating animals have a morphine-like substance in their blood, known as hibernation inducement trigger or H.I.T. for short, which seems to activate the hibernation process when the days become shorter and colder.



Researchers have also discovered two 'hibernation' genes both of which appear to control the use of foodstuffs by the body.



Q. Do hibernating animals sleep continuously?

A. Every animal hibernates in different ways. True hibernators, which tend to be small mammals, reptiles, amphibians and insects, undergo a distinct drop in heart rate and a body temperature and are very hard to wake up.



Larger mammals enter into what is known a state of dormancy. Though their heart rate slows, their body temperature doesn't drop as dramatically as true hibernators and although they sleep deeply they are quite easily aroused and become active during warmer spells.

Answer 5

Hibernation is evolutionary technique that some animals developed to survive in a area where the climate changes and food supplies drop off. A good example is the Grizzly bears in Alaska. They hibernate in the fall and throughout the winter season, as this period of intense cold and snow has little to offer in terms of food.

Answer 6

Some animals hibernate because it's condition can't stand with the coldest of the winter.
They can't do anything but sleep till the winter gone.

Answer 7

It's a survival mechanism that allows the animal to conserve energy during times when food is scarce.

Answer 8

snakes, bats, bears, turtles, and a couple birds such as the hummingbird, and poorwill go into a semi-hibernation state called torpor.

Answer 9

well......they usually hibernated during winter......where there is a limited amount of food...... so, before winter, they will eat a lot n when winter comes, they asleep.....so that they can reserved the energy which is in a form of fat in the body to stay alive!!!!

Answer 10

Because food is generally scarce in winter.

Answer 11

to avoid the changes in climate, season and food.