Bears enter a lighter state of sleep called torpor. Hibernation is a voluntary state an animal enters to conserve energy, when food is scarce, and minimize exposure to the winter elements. Hibernation is triggered by decreasing day length and hormonal changes in an animal that dictate the need to conserve energy.
What causes black bears to hibernate?
Hibernation is the mechanism that black bears use to conserve energy and reduce their internal fires of metabolism. For a long time people thought that the bears slept through the winter in cozy dens and emerged in the spring fully charged.
Why do brown bears hibernate?
Most brown bears spend the winter hibernating in dens to avoid the cold weather and lack of abundant food sources. During their winter slumber, bears' bodies drop in body temperature, pulse rate, and respiration. Their bodies use the fat they stored in the summer as energy.
What does a bear do during hibernation?
Hibernating bears enter a shallow torpor with a decrease in body temperature of only 10 degrees. It's metabolism and hear rate slows down. But it doesn't need to eat, drink or pass waste. In order to survive, fat in the bear's body breaks down into water and calories for the body to use.
Do bears wake during hibernation?
Many, like the chipmunk, wake up for brief periods, but for the most part, true hibernators remain in this low-energy state through the winter. Waking takes time and uses up an animal's energy reserve. Many animals once thought to hibernate, including bears, really only enter a lighter sleep-state called torpor.
What happens if a bear wakes up during hibernation?
If you were to wake up a hibernating animal midwinter, you would be effectively killing it. It would use up so much energy warming itself up in order to awaken that it would have no chance of making it to spring even if it could re-enter hibernation.Dec 5, 2021
Do bears ever wake up during hibernation?
While many people think of hibernation as a deep sleep, that's not exactly correct. In fact, bears can wake up and move around their dens during this time. That's especially true if they sense danger. Bears have been known to even leave their dens if they become damaged.
Are bears dangerous during hibernation?
New research shows that, despite low heart rates and respiration, hibernating black bears are always alert to danger and ready to act. Additionally, the heart rates of pregnant bears, which give birth during winter months, increase as the pregnancy progresses but return to hibernation levels after the cubs are born.
How long does it take a bear to wake up from hibernation?
Hibernation can last anywhere from 4-7 months, triggered by seasonal food shortages, cold temperatures and snow cover. When the going gets tough, the tough get… sleepy.
Do black bears wake up during hibernation?
But they need to wake up once a week or so to eat some food and pass waste. Important to most humans, is how a bear wakes from torpor. Because of the need to increase blood temperature and metabolism to normal body temperature, true hibernators awake slowly and are lethargic until fully awake.