Photo: Simon Pierre Barrette.CC-BY-SA-3.0 Sleeping bears seem to be able to sense the presence of intruders, and they are able to wake up very quickly in order to defend themselves: midwinter explorers, take care. This light sleep is likely a survival mechanism, as bear dens can be in surprisingly exposed locations: scratched into hillsides, in rock crevices or hollow trees, under brush piles or downed trees, or even in open areas of the forest floor. Its body temperature drops slightly and its metabolism slows, but it will wake if it is disturbed or if the weather turns unusually warm. In comparison, the bear sleeps only lightly. Some species, such as the chipmunk, periodically wake up to eat and pass waste others, like the bat, tough it out the whole winter without any sustenance at all. There is some debate about whether or not bears truly hibernate some scientists prefer to describe their winter sleep as “lethargy” or “torpor.” The bodies of so-called “true” or “deep” hibernators such as rodents or bats drop to near-ambient temperatures and their metabolic rates plummet to almost nothing within a few hours. Males bed down around mid-December and emerge in mid-March females, which give birth during the winter and stay with their cubs for two years, remain in their dens longer, from late November to mid-April. When the weather grows cold and the food supply finally dries up, they will retreat to their winter dens. Animals and Plants of the Finger Lakes Black Bear Hibernation: Bearing the Cold of Winter All through spring and summer, black bears ( Ursus americanus) have been eating everything they can find, up to 20,000 calories a day in the form of plants and grasses, berries, acorns, insects, honey, and even birdseed and garbage.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |