Studying the way in which an animal as big as the bear can hibernate, the researchers discovered that there is a hormone guilty of this “winter sleep”
Hibernation is a “custom” widespread among wild animals. It’s a lazy way to spend a part of the cold season in a state more or less…assleep. But the purpose is quite practical: when you don’t find food, you save your energy. Moreover, sitting in a den and the deposited fat on the body, are protecting the bears from cold. The wild animals who hibernate are not ashamed to accumulate „curls” on their paws, abdomen and back, because nature is not asking them to make their beauty-sleep but the survival sleep. Without worrying about cellulite, the animals can accumulate enough food in their organism to get them to the spring. The bears are not growing during hibernation and all activities of the body are minimized. Did you know that the heart beats can reach one or two rates per minute?
Hibernation hormone
Not all the wild animals are really hibernating. Some go into a deep winter sleep others go into diapause (especially insects). Some would say that once the snow fell down, the bears are streching in their dens and start snorring immediately after the last “gape”. Actually, they sleep light, waking up every few days to unwind their bones. Studying how an animal as big as the bear can hibernate, the Japanese researchers have discovered that there is a hormone responsabile for this state of “sleepiness” that some animals come with the coming of the cold season. On late autumn, there is a drop of blood concentration of a particular protein, called HP (“a specific hibernation protein”), which is then maintained throughout hibernation. When the HP level of blood begins to rise, the hibernation ends.
In conclusion, when you take a walk in the forest during winter time, don’t count the bears hibernate, do not bother them as they might wake up!!!
