Which animals hibernate

The difference between hibernation and torpor is that hibernation appears to be a voluntary state, whereas torpor is usually for a shorter time period and appears involuntary. Reptiles and amphibians are cold blooded, and so if they remained active would not be able to perform their bodily functions. None of our wetland bird species hibernate, and have instead developed adaptations to deal with the cold — such as migration.

Only three British mammal groups truly hibernate. You may notice from season to season that the animals you see in nature seemingly vanish in winter, but they may not all be hibernating. You might also notice that some animals you thought hibernated are up and about!

As the only flying mammals, bats need to use a lot of energy, and to cope with this bats have developed several energy saving tactics. They hibernate during winter when food is scarce and have a very low birth rate.

This group go into a version of hibernation called brumation, a specific term that applies to reptiles, but it is similar to hibernation. This is because reptiles rely on the sun to regulate their body temperature, so hibernation is essential for their survival in colder climates. Frogs and newts will hibernate on the bottom of ponds, but if these ponds are full of leaf matter this can prove deadly to a hibernating amphibian if the pond freezes over. Underneath that thick layer of ice, the leaf litter and plant matter starts to decompose, and that can release toxic gases that unfortunately can be fatal to the amphibians living below the surface.

Some wetland insects hibernate in larvae form, stashed safely in reedbeds and tussocks of grass, or crevices in walls or bug hotels. Some insects like honey bees rely on their family to survive, huddling together and using their joint heat to combat the cold. Although there is at least one bird species in the world that does hibernate, birds in the UK at least do not use hibernation as a survival strategy.

The two main threats to birds in winter are a lack of food and extreme weather conditions. But instead of hibernation, wetland birds have certain adaptations that allow them to survive the winter.

They use their power of flight to migrate to more suitable climes. They also perform social flocking behaviours to keep warm and escape predation.

Not all bees hibernate, but bumblebees do. The bumblebee life cycle begins in the spring, when the queen bumblebee emerges from her winter underground hibernation. The queen lays broods of worker bees first, followed by new queens and male bees. At the end of the cycle, the old queen and worker bees die. The new queens feed heavily, dig underground hibernation spots, and the cycle begins again.

Bats go into a state of torpor when temperatures get cold and they need to conserve energy. Torpor in bats can last from a couple of hours to a month.

During this time, the bat's heartbeat can go from to beats per minute down to as few as In order to rewarm themselves from torpor passively, bats sometimes use energy from the sun. Here's a video showing some of the other animals that hibernate:. Duke Lemur Center. New England Primate Conservancy. Faherty, Sheena L. Genome Biology And Evolution , vol 8, no. Animal Diversity Web. McAllan, B. Integrative And Comparative Biology , vol 54, no.

National Park Service ". Currie, Shannon E. American Physiological Society , doi Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. What is torpor? Torpor conserves energy in the short term and often helps the animal survive a brief bout of poor conditions, such as cold nights.

Which animals enter torpor? Birds such as hummingbirds and frogmouths, or small mammals such as bats, can go into torpor every day. One of the problems with torpor is that the animals are too sluggish to react to predators. And, if the cold spell is unusually long, the animal may die if its body temperature drops too low. What is denning? This is a light form of dormancy typical of bears, where the animal is groggy, but easily roused. Amazingly, many female bears give birth and suckle young while denning.

Bears eat a lot of high-energy food to build-up fat reserves that will last all winter. Bears can be woken easily during a mild spell of weather, but may not have enough energy to survive the rest of the winter. The dwarf fat-tailed lemur of Madagascar is the only known primate to aestivate, using up fat reserves in its tail during a long dry season. The common poorwill, a small species of nightjar, is the only bird known to hibernate.

It conceals itself among piles of rocks to escape winter. The Antarctic cod Notothenia coriiceps can enter a state of dormancy by lowering its metabolism. Male garter snakes are the first to emerge from their winter dens in order to mate with females as they wake up.