A Long Winter Nap

Ice, snow, freezing temperatures and cold wind are hallmarks of winter in Pennsylvania. The growing season is well behind us. Autumn's final harvest of fruits and vegetables are canned to last through the bitter months ahead. Fresh fruit and vegetables will be purchased at the grocery store until next years garden is producing.. Heavy winter jackets, hats, gloves and scarves emerge from the closets.

Adapting to winter up North requires a great deal of effort. So much, in fact, that some animal species migrate to ensure survival and avoid having to adapt. Nature has provided other animials with the means to deal indirectly with short days, cold weather and lack of food by simply laying down for a long winter nap.

Hibernation is not really a long winter nap, but rather something just as appealing. During the cold blustery season certain animals, both warm and cold blooded, enter a state of inactivity and dormancy. Prior to that the animals either store food, like chipmunks, or begin to fatten themselves up. A bear may devour 20,000 calories during daily 20 hour eating sprees in preparation for the winter sleep over. Different levels of hibernation are measured according to various criteria.

The "true hibernators" enter dens, caves or other dwelling places and their body temperature and breathing rate drops considerably. Pennsylvania's more famous true hibernators are the groundhog, bear and bats. Other species like raccoons, skunks, opossums and chipmunks may emerge on warmer days during the winter to search for food but will return to their lengthy slumber quickly.

Squirrels are one of those animals that hibernate partially. These rodents are more active than the true hibernators. To define hibernation using specific terms causes debate. Some animals that are not true hibernatiors are described as entering a state of torpidity.

Hibernation is not confined to warm blooded animals. Snails, snakes, toads, frogs, turtles and salamanders all survive the winter by slowing or shutting down most of their bodily functions. Some of these species will bury themselves in mud or under leaf litter below the frost line. Snakes curl up in a ball just like the warm blooded animals.

No matter what you call it, these lucky creatures have the right idea. Weeks of feeding your face, then months of deep slumber where there is little to no knowledge of the sometimes bitter ways of man and winter. Then again, no matter how inviting a long winter nap may appear at times, too much goes on during the season to sleep it away.

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