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An animal prepares for hibernation by building up a thick layer of body fat during late summer and autumn that will provide it with energy during the dormant period. During hibernation, the animal undergoes many physiological changes, including decreased heart rate (by as much as 95%) and decreased body temperature . [ 2 ]
Facultative hibernators enter hibernation only when either cold-stressed, food-deprived, or both, unlike obligate hibernators, who enter hibernation based on seasonal timing cues rather than as a response to stressors from the environment. A good example of the differences between these two types of hibernation can be seen in prairie dogs.
Aestivation (Latin: aestas (summer); also spelled estivation in American English) is a state of animal dormancy, similar to hibernation, although taking place in the summer rather than the winter. Aestivation is characterized by inactivity and a lowered metabolic rate, that is entered in response to high temperatures and arid conditions. [ 1 ]
With hibernation, the warm-blooded animal will deeply sleep until spring and will not eat or drink until it awakens, whereas cold-blooded animals that brumate do not go into a deep sleep and will ...
When the temperatures begin to drop, snakes go into a state called brumation.This event acts as a type of hibernation for cold-blooded animals. “Cold temperatures cause reptiles and amphibians ...
Many animals, including large ones, may undergo hibernation, and most plants have periods of dormancy. This article focuses primarily on the potential of large animals, especially humans, to undergo suspended animation. In animals, suspended animation may be either hypometabolic or ametabolic in nature.
These reptiles don’t migrate in the cooler seasons or go into hibernation. But snakes and alligators do go into a similar state when temperatures begin to drop to help them survive the cold.
This reduction in body temperature and metabolic rate allows the prolonged survival of animals capable of entering torpid states. In 2020, scientists reported evidence of the torpor in Lystrosaurus living ~250 Mya in Antarctica – the oldest evidence of a hibernation-like state in a vertebrate animal. [15] [16] [17]