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Hibernation is a state of minimal activity and metabolic depression undergone by some animal species. Hibernation is a seasonal heterothermy characterized by low body-temperature, slow breathing and heart-rate, and low metabolic rate. It is most commonly used to pass through winter months – called overwintering.
This species is nocturnal, with a diet of insects, other small animals, fruits and flowers. [12] The fat-tailed lemur is the only known primate to hibernate for extended periods of time, up to seven months. It performs this torpor during the dry season to minimise the impacts of droughts. During the wet season, it gorges on food, accumulating a ...
[9] [10] In the traditional definition of hibernation, the largest marmots are considered the largest "true hibernators" (since larger "hibernators" such as bears do not have the same physiological characteristics as obligate hibernating animals such as assorted rodents, bats and insectivores). [11] [12]
Hibernation is voluntary, whereas torpor is involuntary, like breathing. There are many animals that do go into full hibernation. True hibernators include squirrels , mice, bats, and turtles .
Image credits: an1malpulse #5. Animal campaigners are calling for a ban on the public sale of fireworks after a baby red panda was thought to have died from stress related to the noise.
Some animals seasonally go into long periods of inactivity, with reduced body temperature and metabolism, made up of multiple bouts of torpor. This is known as hibernation if it occurs during winter or aestivation if it occurs during the summer.
Animals that hibernate include bats, ground squirrels and other rodents, mouse lemurs, the European hedgehog and other insectivores, monotremes and marsupials. Although hibernation is almost exclusively seen in mammals, some birds, such as the common poorwill , may hibernate.
This terminology for the animal originated as a taboo avoidance term: proto-Germanic tribes replaced their original word for bear—arkto—with this euphemistic expression out of fear that speaking the animal's true name might cause it to appear. [4] [5] According to author Ralph Keyes, this is the oldest known euphemism. [6]