Ledbury Focus October 2019 Ledbury Focus October 2019 v2 | Page 58
Hazel Dormouse - photo courtesy of Terry Whittaker
I
n winter, many animals struggle to survive.
It’s hard to find enough food to eat and hard
to survive the bitterly cold, wet weather. One
solution that nature has come up with to help
with this problem is hibernation.
Hibernation is a bit like sleeping. In fact, hibernating
animals may look just like they are sleeping, but
hibernation is actually much more than this.
Hibernating animals are able to slow their bodies
right down: they can slow their heartrate and breathing
down, and also lower their body temperature. For
example, a hedgehog will slow its heartbeat down from
190 beats per minute to just 20 beats per minute
when it hibernates. Its body temperature will drop
from 35˚C to just 10˚C!
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Hibernating animals do this so that they use less
energy and so can survive for many weeks without
food. Before going into hibernation, many animals
will eat and eat and eat! They do this to make them-
selves as fat as possible before hibernating. This fat
will give them energy during the winter. If they don't
eat enough, they will run out of energy before spring
arrives.
In the UK, only three species of mammal hibernate:
hedgehogs, bats and dormice. Some insects hibernate
such as bumblebees, some butterflies and ladybirds as
well as amphibians: frogs, toads, newts and reptiles:
grass snakes, adders, slow worms.
Many people think that squirrels hibernate because
they spend lots of time gathering food in autumn but,
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