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Why Do Animals Have To Hibernation Happened?

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Not all animals migrate during the winter; such as: birds,fish, whales and sea turtles. On the other hand, most mammals, and some reptiles like the tortoise prefer to sleep during the whole winter, which will usually last up to five to seven months. These months vary from animal to animal; this is called hibernation. Ubeda claims in his article that, hibernation is a deep sleep in which an animal's body temperature drops to just above the temperature of the outside world to conserve as much energy as possible (Ubeda). Hibernation by larger animals, such as, the bear or mountain lion usually occurs during the winter in large dens. On the other hand, if the animal is smaller like a squirrel or a rabbit, hibernation will take place in a small hole or a tree. One reason why hibernation occurs is because food is scarce and harder to achieve, so animals need to conserve all their energy. In Grabianowski’s article, he claims that an animal starts hibernation by slowing their heart rate down (which allows their body temperature to drop) (Grabianowski). Animals need to hibernate to save as much energy as possible for the …show more content…

They do not need to get up for food, but maybe for water (which is very scarce because it’s mostly frozen during the winter time any way) and to rid themselves of any waste they may need to get rid of.Toothman states in her article that if they really needed to wake up during hibernation it would only need to be about once every two or three weeks for a short period of time (Toothman). It may not be safe how ever for an animal to wake from hibernation and move around too much because they could lose a lot of useful energy that could keep them alive during the long harsh winter. Most animals on the other hand, to avoid losing any valuable energy, stay asleep during the whole hibernation process and take care of all they need to take care of after they wake up from there deep

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