Think about how people get ready for cold winter months. Coat, hats, gloves and boots warm. Hot soup and chocolate gives energy. The heaters heat up. All these measures protect people in severe winter weather.
However, animals do not have these options. Some of them will not survive cold and harsh winters. Therefore, nature came up with a process called hibernation. Hibernation is a long period of deep sleep in cold weather. To prepare, wintering animals eat a lot in the fall to survive the cold and dangerous winter. Their metabolism, or the speed of burning calories, also slows down so that the energy is preserved.
The more they learn about bears, the more they fall in love with these incredible creatures
Why hibernate bears?
The zoo has the opportunity to observe bears how they eat food, or spend the warm hours of the day under a tree. But what do bears do in the winter months? Why does the bear sleep in winter? Read below and be surprised!
The bear gives birth during winter hibernation (in the middle of winter), feed children in the den before spring.
Even if the bear becomes pregnant, this does not mean that she will have a bear cub this winter. Bears mate in the spring, after a short moment in the development of the embryo, the female has a “delayed pregnancy”, the embryo stops developing for several months. If the mother has enough accumulated energy (fat) to survive the winter together with the cub, the embryo will continue to develop. If the expectant mother is not enough accumulated energy, the embryo is “freezing”, and she will not give birth to this year. This adaptation guarantees that the female bear will survive a long winter, and her cubs will not die.
Features of hibernation of bears
Bears do not hibernate like rodents. Bear body temperature drops by only 7-8 ° C. The pulse slows down from 50 to about 10 beats per minute. During winter hibernation, bears burn about 4,000 calories per day that is why the body of the beast needs to gain so much fat (fuel) before the bear falls into hibernation (an adult male curls with a kalachik, in his body there is more than a million calories of energy in front of the hibernation).
Bears are wintered not because of the cold, but because of a lack of food in the winter months. Bears do not go to the toilet during hibernation. Instead, they process urine and feces in proteins. Animals lose 25-40% of weight during hibernation, burn fat stocks for heating the body.
Pillows on the paws of the bear exfoliate during winter hibernation, free up space for growth and new fabrics.
When the bear comes out of hibernation, they are in a state of “walking hibernation” at this time for several weeks. Bears seem drunk or in a stupor until their bodies return to normal.
