Why hibernation—why do some animals sleep through the winter?
When the cold temperatures and ice of winter arrive, food becomes scarce for animals in the wild. Hibernation is a survival strategy, given by the Lord of all creatures; it is a technique that can be very successful in environments where food is scarce or just difficult to find during a long, cold winter season. Hibernation not only eliminates the need for food-gathering in the winter, but also lets an animal conserve its body energy by slowing down its heart rate and breathing. During the winter we are unable to see some animals, such as bears, in their usual habitat; they have retired to their dens. Since these kinds of animals have little chance to find food in their regions during that period, dropping into deep hibernation or into a torpid state allows them to use their bodies’ energy reserves at a slower rate than they would if they were maintaining themselves at their typical basal metabolic rate. Some ecologists refer to hibernation as “time migration.” Hibernation allows the a
