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welcome to Big Bear Week at Mashable! Each fall, Katmai National Park hosts a competition in which Alaska's brown bears finish growing for their long winter hibernation. This year, Mashable gets into the action of eating salmon. Appointment with us all week as we watch the clashes every day, and do not forget to vote for each round. Good fishing!
During a glorious week in October, we celebrate the world's greasy bears.
Thanks to the position of the exploration bear cameras on the Brooks River in Alaska, viewers spend a full season getting to know brown bears gorging on calorie-dense salmon while foraging for their hibernating winter.
Now that Fat Week is almost over, it has led us to wonder: what other animals are hibernating and why are they doing it?
Here are 10 other animals that prefer to take the winter months:
bumblebees
The buzzing queens hibernate in winter and the rest of the bees die.
There is a reason why bees are not present in winter and because they are asleep or dead. In fact, most of them are dead.
But no need to worry, bees have a very strategic life cycle. Each spring, queens wake up from their burrow in the ground to lay a bouquet of eggs; first the worker bees, then the new queens and the male bees, according to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.
The new queens and male bees leave the nest and get married, and once the winter arrives, all the old queens, workers and males die. The new queens survive and repeat the cycle after the end of a hibernation period that can last up to nine months.
hedgehogs
Like bears, wild hedgehogs spend their waking months pricking themselves for the winter as thorny creatures participate in a kind of hibernation called torpor, according to a study published in the New Zealand Journal of Zoology.
During the torpor, an animal lowers its body temperature to adapt to the ambient temperature and engages in long periods of inactivity.
While they are in a state of torpor, hedgehogs can still move, but their movement is very limited during the six or seven months they spend in their wooded hiding places.
Ground squirrels
The question of whether or not the hibernate mode is hotly debated, but the solution is simple. Some squirrels, others not.
Curiously, the question of whether or not squirrels hibernate is hibernated is hotly debated.
Everyday tree squirrels do not hibernate in the winter – they sleep a lot. However, ground squirrels, found around the world, hibernate.
Researchers at the University of Lethbridge have even noted the presence of species that curl up during their hibernation in their cozy underground burrow from October to May.
Bats
Bats hibernate in a cycle that is unlike any other animal.
According to the National Parks Service, dormant periods can last for hours or even months in hibernation. In the meantime, bats are able to regain their normal body temperature and resume their activities, such as eating.
They do all this in the comfort of their caves, mines or other rocky places.
Turtles
There is a lot of conflicting information about whether turtles hibernate or not, and just like the argument about squirrels, it all depends on the type of turtle.
Turtles that live in warmer, sunnier climates do not hibernate. Although, if it is too hot, they will either immerse or enter a state of torpor and bury themselves to stay out of the ruthless heat until the weather is over. fresh or that precipitation returns.
Hibernating turtles do so mainly underground. In order not to die of cold, tortoises will burrow into the earth and freshwater turtles will lodge under the mud during the winter months, according to Nature Conservancy.
Common bad faith
Common misery is the only species of bird known to hibernate.
Rather than migrate like the rest of the family, when the insects that make up most of the poor child's diet become scarce in the winter, the little bird becomes comfortable under a rock or log and sleeps for an average of 100 days.
snakes
Okay, technically, snakes do not hibernate … they brumate, which is the equivalent of hibernating on reptiles.
During the colder months, snakes search for a well insulated hiding place where they can use their time using little or no energy until the heat returns.
In some cases, snakes will burn in large piles … which sounds horrible.
marmots
American marmots spend nearly half of their year hibernating.
Once in November, Penn State researchers estimate that these furbearing animals drop their body temperature to about 38 ° F (about 96.8 ° F above normal) and sleep in their burrow until end of April or beginning of May.
Lemurs with fat tail
Fat-tailed lemurs are the only primate known to hibernate more than 24 hours.
Like the bat, the hibernation of the lemur is cyclical. Although hibernation usually lasts seven months, characterized by long periods of torpor, throughout this period, the lemur will regain normal body heat for about 6 to 12 days, according to researchers at Duke University.
Moths
If the butterfly is lucky enough to spend the winter, it must remain completely inactive.
Overall, butterflies live fairly quickly. So, if they are not dead before the usual winter months, adult butterflies will go into a period of inactivity much like the rest of the named creatures on this list.
However, if the moth does not reach adulthood, larvae laid before winter will remain unhatched until their food source (flower nectar) is reconstituted, according to the Butterfly Conservation Organization .
There are some butterflies that fly and breed in winter. But it's a safe bet that the only butterflies that will be present by the end of October are actually people dressed in themed costumes.
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