What are the names of animals that hibernate. Seasonal dormouse: which animals have to hibernate for the winter (2 photos). Animals that spend the winter in an active state

Hibernation (hibernation) is a slowdown in vital processes and metabolism for a certain period of time. At the same time, body temperature decreases, breathing and pulse slow down, nervous activity and other body processes are inhibited.

It is difficult for many animals to get their own food in winter and they choose this way of survival in order to make it to warm days. Before hibernation, they feed with a vengeance, thus accumulating the energy they need during hibernation.

Winter hibernation of animals is a perfect way invented by nature to save their offspring from conditions that are unusual for their normal life.

There are a lot of animals that hibernate in winter. Most of them live in a temperate climate characterized by warm summers and cold winters, during which it is difficult for them to find food. Some of them will be discussed below.

Bear

The most famous representative of the animal world that hibernates in winter is the bear. It should be noted that his hibernation is considered shallow. It's more of a snooze. Its body temperature does not become as low as in other animals that are in true hibernation. The same goes for his heartbeat. This means that if you try to touch him in this state, he can wake up very quickly and immediately begin to fight. Bears are animals that hibernate in winter, do not lose their orientation in space and time.

However, bears can remain in this state without touching food or water for up to seven months. This becomes possible thanks to the fat accumulated over the summer, the layer of which can reach 15 cm. In the summer, a bear does not just eat food, it brutally overeats. This process is somewhat reminiscent of fattening a pig, and is also equal to 30 full meals eaten per day by a person.

hedgehog

Hedgehogs are engaged in active life from 4 to 7 months, dividing this period into three stages: awakening, reproduction of offspring, preparation for long hibernation. With the onset of cold weather, they hibernate. The main reason for this phenomenon for hedgehogs is a lack of food, a secondary one is cold. They do not stockpile food for the winter as they feed on insects. Therefore, they have to stock up on fat in the summer season, and hibernate in the winter. In addition, their thermoregulation is imperfect, which leads to the need for prolonged winter stupor.

Gophers

Gophers in terms of hibernation are animals that are in a state of torpor for the longest time, to be more precise, up to nine months a year. Moreover, the cyclical nature of their stay in this state is noted. A short active period of life alternates with a long stupor, after which active life activity begins again. It is replaced by prolonged hibernation, etc. This feature of their body is hereditary.

frogs

Frogs, in comparison with animals that hibernate or are in a stupor, can be in a state of deeper suppression of vital activity - in suspended animation. At the same time, their metabolism slows down as much as possible, and survival is carried out at the expense of internal energy reserves. Depending on the variety, frogs can hibernate in a hole they dug, in crevices that they themselves fill with leaves, and also at the bottom of reservoirs.

The bats

Bats in winter, having found a suitable shelter, fall into a stupor for 7-8 months. Their sleep is interrupted every 2-3 weeks by awakenings to seek a warmer shelter and matchmaking, since winter for these animals is the period of reproduction.

Animals that hibernate also include rodents, Australian echidnas, Chilean opossums, hamsters, dormice, chipmunks, and badgers.

In the spring, bears wake up all over the Northern Hemisphere. They yawn, stretch and shake. Still awake after a long sleep, they wander under the rays of the sun, feeling ever-increasing hunger. Still, since last autumn they have not even had poppy dew in their mouths.

Why do you need hibernation?

Snowy winter is not a gift for most animals. Food disappears from the frozen ground. The days become short and cold, the nights long and even colder.

Finding food requires a lot of energy, which may not be replenished by the found food (if anything can be found at all). Some animals, such as migratory birds, simply fly south to escape the winter. Others are cold tolerant. Many die. And some animals, such as hummingbirds, arctic squirrels and brown bears, hibernate. Falling into hibernation, animals reduce the body's need for energy, reduce it to a minimum.

Interesting fact: animals falling into true hibernation, reduce the heart rate to one beat per minute.

The difference between hibernation and sleep

If hibernation were an ordinary dream, then everyone could fall into it. You went to the yard in December, pitched a tent, and sleep in good health. In April you wake up, stretch and go home for breakfast. It is clear that you are not able to do this: firstly, you will not be able to sleep for so long, secondly, in a few days you will need to drink water, and thirdly, you will simply freeze. But the fact is that hibernation is a state that is different from ordinary sleep. This is a special survival mechanism that allows you to lower your body temperature and reduce your heart rate in order to reduce the body's energy costs during times of cold and deprivation.

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There are animals that do true hibernation, such as ground squirrels and other small animals, and animals like bears that do shallow hibernation, scientists say. A small animal, falling into true hibernation, quickly reduces the heart rate from 150-300 beats per minute to 7 beats per minute or less. In California ground squirrels, the heart rate can drop to one beat per minute. The body temperature gradually decreases to very low numbers, sometimes almost to 0 degrees Celsius, although the initial body temperature of small rodents practically does not differ from ours and is about 35 degrees Celsius. In short, the temperature becomes the same as the temperature in the burrow.

hibernation process

If hibernation has come, then the animal seems to die for the outside world. You can step on a hibernating animal, throw it into the air, and catch it, and it won’t even squeak. However, small sleeping animals do not remain “sleepy” all winter in a row. Every few weeks, and sometimes even once every four days, these animals wake up from hibernation, just like people "depart" after anesthesia. They drink water, even eat a little, cope with natural needs.

Interesting fact: every few days or weeks, animals that have fallen into true hibernation wake up to eat, drink and take care of their natural needs.

They can remain awake for up to a day, then return to their anabiotic state again. During hibernation, such animals lose up to 40 percent in weight.

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Hibernation at the bears

In contrast, bears do not undergo such dramatic changes in the body. The body temperature does not drop so sharply, the pulse rate decreases a little. They are well oriented in space and time. hibernation bears better called a nap. However, there are experts who believe that it is bears that fall into true hibernation, since they can sleep through the whole winter, and even more, without ever waking up.

A bear can lie in a den without touching food or water for seven months. Let's take a brown bear as an example, it is as warm-blooded as we are. These creatures every year "waving the world a pen" for four months. Sometimes they retire in caves or arrange dens for themselves in hollows of trees.

Some bears simply rake the leaves and lie down on the ground. During the winter, sleeping bears are gradually covered with snow. How do bears endure so much time without food and water, and besides, in a severe frost? The bear somehow undergoes a radical restructuring of its body, the cells begin to use energy very carefully, maintaining the vital activity of the organism at the required minimum level. In the summer, the bear does not just eat a lot, he overeats. Summer for him is a holiday of overeating. During the season, the bear grows a layer of fat up to 15 centimeters thick. The whole process of a bear's summer feeding is very similar to fattening a fat pig. A bear consumes up to 20,000 calories per day. This is the same if you ate 10 breakfasts, 10 lunches and 10 dinners a day.

Bears begin to come out of hibernation ahead of time. The anomalous heat of this February is to blame. According to the Hydrometeorological Center, the thermometer shows 2-5 degrees above the average. Therefore, brown bears, which were supposed to suck their paws in dens somewhere before March 15, are slowly coming out of hibernation. According to huntsman and hunter Andrey Dymov, “Bears-rods that started spring ahead of time bring less healthy offspring, but most importantly, they pose a real threat to people. Hunger makes them fearlessly go to human dwellings, although usually they try not to intersect with a person.

How do other animals wake up?

Spider - next to mom

For most animals, hibernation is a way of survival. Without it, say, bears in circuses do quite well, as they are kept warm and fed. Spiders are different. Only one species living in the middle lane - the South Russian tarantula - can not sleep in winter if it ends up in a heated room.

Before going to bed, the spider should feel completely safe - because the water ones build special cocoons for themselves, the rest climb underground, under the bark and carefully wall up the entrance. Young spiders prefer to sleep next to their mother. Awakening occurs at the beginning of March.

Bat - thaws

In the middle lane it is not easy to find caves where bats traditionally winter. Hollow trees and the ruins of human dwellings are also rarely seen, so recently some mice ... fly away to warmer climes, or at least to warmer parts of the country. Those who had enough shelters wake up, as soon as the daytime temperature clearly turns to plus, they can even in early March. In winter, the body of the mouse cools down to 0, or even down to -5 degrees, they do at this time 5-6 breaths per minute.

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

Badger - giving birth

It comes out of hibernation quite early and immediately begins to restore order in the hole. Animals live in the same place from generation to generation. Studies prove that some badger towns are several thousand years old. Badgers, who, by the way, "marry" once and for life, barely waking up, give birth to offspring. In this species of animals, there is, scientifically speaking, a latent stage of pregnancy - that is, it stretches from the usual 270 to 450 days, if it falls on hibernation. This is typical for badgers living in Russia.

Fish - waiting for April

Many freshwater fish - carp, ruffe, perch, catfish, sturgeon - in the fall, when the water temperature drops below +8 °, go to wintering pits (the deepest parts of the reservoir), where they burrow into the silt until spring. During sleep, their heartbeat slows down 10 times - up to 2 beats per minute, and breathing - up to 3 breaths. The bodies of sturgeon, sterlet and beluga are also covered with mucus. Fish wake up closer to April, when the water warms up again to + 8 °.

Frog - starts the heart

Despite the fragile appearance, the frog is able to tolerate the coldest temperatures. Water frogs spend the winter at the bottom of the reservoir, moving in the water from time to time. Terrestrial or burrow deep into the ground below the freezing level of the soil (but there are very few such species), or simply fall asleep in a pile of fallen leaves. At the same time, the frog does not breathe and its heart stops beating. But when warm days come, the frozen parts of the frog thaw and the organs start working again.

Hedgehog - walks for days

The time of exit from hibernation - and this happens after March 15 - is the most active for the prickly animal. If in the summer he leaves his shelter only at night, and the rest of the time he sleeps curled up in a ball, then in March he walks around the clock. All his thoughts are about food. By the way, if a hedgehog falls asleep without having time to gain the required amount of fat - about 500 g (this is almost half the weight of a hedgehog in summer), then it may simply not wake up. So in famine years, up to 90% of young animals and 40% of adults die.

We are grateful for the help of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Cold and harsh winters leave their mark on the life and behavior of animals. Everything changes for them: from their appearance to their habitat.

This can be seen in the photos and pictures of burrows and nests in winter and summer.

Training

How do wild animals prepare for winter?

To survive in these harsh conditions of the cold season, wild animals prepare for winter in advance:

• change color,
• make stocks,
• prepare a home
• fall into hibernation.

On various photos and presentations on the network, you can see that some are awake all winter, for others, on the contrary, hibernation is the best solution. But for all living things there is a common thing - all animals change their behavior in general in winter.

Let us consider in detail how animals prepare for wintering with the help of photos, pictures and presentations.

A hare, for example, has a gray coat color in warm seasons, and closer to winter it changes color and becomes white. Thanks to the change in its color, it escapes from various predators that are eager to feast on. Also, the hare easily moves through the snow and can repulse the predator with the blows of its hind legs. This is due to the fact that his paws are wide and densely overgrown with hair. The hare does not stock up for the winter, so it is hard for him in the cold. The hare hides from the winter cold and sleeps in a hole dug by him under trees or stumps. In severely cold winters, it can move closer to human dwellings, eating hay or the remains of animal feed.

But the fox does not change its color. The only thing that changes in the fox is the undercoat, which becomes very thick in order to keep warm in severe frosts. She is not adapted to make supplies, therefore she finds mice under the snow, sometimes she drags chickens from people's dwellings. This wild animal does not especially prepare for winter and does not hibernate, hiding in a deep hole, which it digs under the roots of trees or on hills.

Presentations

Click on the picture below.

Stocks for the winter are made by a squirrel. Preparation for winter in this rodent begins long before it begins. The squirrel lives in the hollows of trees, where it carries mushrooms, nuts, straw, so that in winter it will be warm and satisfying. In winter, she does not sleep, changes color to a light gray fur coat. Pictures, photos and presentation clearly demonstrate the behavior of the animal.

All hibernating animals prepare especially carefully for the cold season, because they sleep all winter, so the place of their sleepy stay should be safe and warm.

Animals that sleep in winter:

1. the Bears,
2. raccoons,
3. badgers,
4. jerboas,
5. hamsters,
6. chipmunks and others.

Lists with pictures

Bears have their own bright distinctive feature - they hibernate, which lasts all winter.

Why is this happening?

In winter, it is difficult for a bear to find enough food, especially plant food, so he has to sleep in his den. The bear den looks like it is shown in the picture. Here are several options for a bear den:

• 1 - ground lair
• 2 - semi-soil lair
• 3.4 - riding dens

The bear is preparing for winter carefully. The hibernation of this predator lasts from three months to six months. During hibernation, the work of his entire body is rebuilt. Breathing and heartbeat slow down, and sleeping bears feed only on the supply of subcutaneous fat. During the wintering period, the animal sleeps and loses about half of its own weight, molts, but does not change color. Those bears that have not hibernated are especially dangerous, since in search of food they often harm people's households or fall on hunters.

As for polar bears, they do not always hibernate, but only she-bears with cubs. This is due to the fact that polar bears feed exclusively on meat and fish. This diet is enough for them to maintain a full life. They don't need to stock up.

You can see the life of bears in more detail in winter with the help and find out: “Why do bears sleep in winter?”

It is not easy for birds in winter. To deal with severe weather conditions, they have special adaptations for winter life. In autumn, they grow scallops or horny fringes, and in spring these downy growths disappear. Sometimes birds change color - plumage, which allows them to merge with the surrounding background.

Forest birds find their food on shrubs and trees, feeding on pine and spruce cones, pine nuts or mountain ash. Relationships between different species of birds change for the winter. They form flocks from different families, sharing the process of foraging.

It is difficult for birds that feed on the ground. It is problematic with ground food in winter, so it is people who can help the birds. Building a birdhouse and providing birds with food means not only helping our smaller brothers survive the harsh winter, but saving their lives. We also have the opportunity to observe their behavior, take interesting photos. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare for winter not only for animals, but also for people.

Birds

Developing didactic tasks and games

We develop fine motor skills of the child. Here you need to help the bear get into the den - circle the dotted lines with a pencil.

Learning to sort with children from smallest to largest and vice versa from largest to smallest.

A game for the development of the child's mathematical abilities - we learn numbers, learn to count. We cut out the bear and distribute it to various lairs.

All animals, without exception, prefer rest, night or day, to active wakefulness. They especially like to fall into or catalepsy. In countries with a cold and temperate climate, the habitual pastime of animals is a six-month hibernation.

Hibernation is a hereditary reaction of living organisms to temperature changes, which was formed millions of years ago.

It was possible to survive these drops only by learning to regulate their own temperature when cold or hot came on. The life of an animal depended on the ability to sleep through a difficult time.

So nature took care of her creatures - this skill will come in handy if the climate on Earth changes again.

Hibernation is characterized by slowing down and metabolism in animals during periods when food is inaccessible, which means it is impossible to maintain activity and a high level of metabolism.

Preparing for hibernation

Preparing for a long sleep, animals accumulate nutrient reserves, their weight due to fat can increase by 40%, and also store food. Nutrition in the preparatory period is rich in fatty acids, which increase immunity and resistance to prolonged torpor.

Rodents are located for the winter in families or alone. The burrows they burrow can stretch inward for three meters or more. Stores of grains, nuts and seeds are arranged in them to maintain vitality.

Shelter (hollow, cave, burrow) is selected taking into account safety, protection from predators, and microclimate: the temperature of the shelter should be slightly above zero, even with severe frosts outside.

Animals according to the method of maintaining body temperature are divided into:

• endothermic that preserve heat regulation at the expense of internal resources. These include all warm-blooded organisms: mammals, birds.
• ectothermic, their temperature depends on the environment. They include cold-blooded organisms (reptiles, amphibians, fish).

Types of hibernation by duration:

• per diem(in bats and hummingbirds).

This type of deep sleep can occur in any season, in both mammals and birds. Physiological processes are less slowed down than during seasonal hibernation. Body temperature usually drops to 18°C, in rare cases - below 10°C, metabolism is reduced by a third.

• Seasonal- winter (hibernation) or summer (estivation).

Winter (hibernation) hibernation is not a homogeneous state and is interrupted for short periods of "warming up" of the body: the body temperature briefly rises and energy exchange increases. Body temperature usually drops to 10°C and below. In long-tailed ground squirrels, it drops to 3°C. Metabolism is 5%, and sometimes slows down to 1% of the normal state.

• Irregular, in squirrels and raccoon dogs, upon the onset of adverse conditions suddenly.

By the way, a person can also suddenly fall into a stupor, but at the same time retain consciousness. This is how a severe mental disorder of motor function manifests itself.
why do animals fall

Hibernation

Winter is a difficult test for many animals. Migratory birds travel great distances to reach warmer climes. Animals that cannot leave cold climates adapt to the change of seasons in their own way: they plunge into a dream-like state.

When the ambient temperature drops to five degrees Celsius, beetles and butterflies, toads and frogs, lizards and snakes, bears and hedgehogs go to bed. Infusoria, amoeba and algae, gathering in a large ball, wrap themselves in a protective shell.

Carp and carps burrow into the mud. Bats doze in caves for six months, hanging upside down.

Aestivation

Summer hibernation or diapause (temporary cessation of development, state of physiological dormancy) ensures the survival of organisms during dry periods of the year. Fish sleep, wrapped in silt at the bottom of dried-up reservoirs. Tortoises and rodents, deprived of food, fall asleep until winter, when swamps and plants dry up from the heat.

Some inhabitants of the tropics also tend to fall asleep for a long period: African hedgehogs sleep for about three months, and Madagascar insectivores for about four.

The hibernation record is broken by rodents. For nine months in a row, the sandstone gopher sleeps. Falling into summer hibernation at the end of July, the animal passes into winter without waking up.

Periodic awakenings.

Some animals wake up from the sleep state from time to time. Scientists do not know exactly the purpose and cause of this behavior. Awakening can last from several minutes in small organisms to several hours in large ones.

So many living organisms fall into hibernation that it is very difficult to list them all. Soviet zoologist N.I. Kalabukhov claimed that there are many more animals that are in a state of stupor in winter than those that are awake.

Physiology of hibernation

Body temperature. Sleeping animals are only a fraction of a degree warmer than the surrounding air. The body temperature of the dormouse drops from 38 degrees to 3.7 (ten times!). In some species, it can drop to zero and even to minus five degrees Celsius.

Dallium fish, a rare warm-blooded fish, falls asleep when the waters of Chukotka freeze through. If a dallium frozen in a piece of ice is placed in warm water, then as soon as the ice melts, the fish will come to life. Due to the unique glycerin-like impregnation, ice crystals do not form in the tissues of dallium, which can break cell membranes.

The hypothermic state of all others is manageable. Brain regulators, led by the tireless hypothalamus (the part of the brain responsible for the constancy of the internal environment of the body), turn on fatty heating in time so that the body temperature does not fall below a critical level.

Metabolism during hibernation decreases in animals to 10-15% of the norm.

Breath in sleeping mammals it decreases by 40 times. In many species, it alternates: rapid superficial is replaced by apnea (lack of breathing) lasting more than an hour, which causes oxygen starvation.

gas exchange- decreases by 10 times. The hedgehog, curled up in a ball, takes a barely perceptible breath just once a minute.

brain activity is preserved only in the hippocampus, the department adjacent to the hypothalamus.

A heart slows down the frequency of contractions per minute to 5-10 beats, in a hedgehog it beats even at zero body temperature. This is surprising, because in animals that do not hibernate, the heart stops at a 15-degree body temperature.

Blood pressure decreases slightly, from 20% to 40%, since the viscosity of the blood increases due to a decrease in temperature. Due to the increased viscosity of the blood, the heart is better supplied with "brown fat", a source of energy.

Hormonal system before hibernation, it is rebuilt to a new rhythm: the animal accumulates fat, enzymes, vitamins, especially vitamin E, which inhibits metabolism. In summer, animals grow fat, increasing their weight by three times by autumn, and thin and weakened wake up in spring.

An interesting fact:

the hibernation of the brown bear, the squirrel and the prairie dog is not real - they fall into a state of superficial torpor. Their metabolism slows down a bit, body temperature, pulse and breathing correspond to the level typical of normal sleep.

Most of them hide in their hiding places and support their existence on the food and fat reserves they have collected for the occasion.

The consciousness of a bear during hibernation does not turn off, it is easy to wake him up.

Pros and cons of hibernation

The undoubted pluses include a reduction in the energy consumption of an animal: it consumes only 15% of the energy that it would need to maintain a normal body temperature in winter when awake.

Within 4-7 months, they can exist due to the accumulated reserves of fat and other nutrients.

Disadvantages: the ability to die from desiccation or exhaustion, the development of atrophy of the musculature of the skeleton, a decrease in immunity, freezing is not excluded at extremely low temperatures, defenselessness against predators.

Research by scientists hibernation mechanisms have a practical purpose: a formula of chemicals that immerse animals in a long hibernation ioz, will allow to carry out surgical operations, cooling the human body to the required temperature.

Sources: A. Borbeli "The Secret of Sleep", "Three Thirds of Life" A.M. Wayne, ru.wikipedia.org, Collier's Encyclopedia (Open Society. 2000).

The following beautiful video is about birds that do not fall into hibernation in winter, but travel thousands of kilometers to get to warm countries:

Elena Valve for the Sleepy Cantata project