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Do animals rest, hibernate, sleep, or stay awake in winter?

Do animals rest, hibernate, sleep, or stay awake in winter?

Animal preparations for winter

Animals spent the winter differently.

Animals spend the winter in differently. Some REST during the winter, others SLEEP or HIBERNATE through the colder months, while some MIGRATE to warmer places in the fall. Some animals REMAIN ACTIVE even in winter, while others DO NOT SURVIVE the winter, or only a few of them make it through.

The arrival of winter in autumn is signaled by migratory birds. We see them as they head south to their wintering grounds in Africa. The most well-known Slovenian travelers are swallows and storks.

At the end of summer, the life cycle of many insects comes to a close. Most bumblebees, wasps, hornets, ladybugs, butterflies, and grigs die at the end of summer. Before that, they lay their eggs in the ground or in a safe refuge. In the spring, larvae hatch from these eggs.

The beetles that survive the winter as larvae can be found hidden in the soil, under bark, among mosses and lichens, or in decaying wood.

Butterflies most often overwinter as pupae, while adult ladybugs hide under bark, leaves, and in houses; grasshoppers also bury themselves in the soil.

Snakes, frogs, and other reptiles and amphibians become dormant in winter. They hide in the soil, under rocks, burrow into the ground, and seek shelter under decaying leaves and trees.

Hedgehogs and other insectivores, bats, dormice, and other small mammals hibernate very deeply during winter. Especially dormice are heavy sleepers, as they hibernate for more than six months. This is also the origin of the Slovene saying "Spi kot polh" (Sleep like a dormouse).

Bats hibernate in places where the temperature remains almost constant, such as underground caves or attics.

Despite popular belief, bears do not truly hibernate in winter! Like badgers and squirrels, bears only go into a kind of dormancy during the winter. Before winter, they stockpile food, but if necessary, they will venture out in search of food, even through deep snow.

Animals that dormancy during the winter typically wake up once every two weeks and remain awake for a day or two.

The winter does not scare rabbits, martens, skunks, wildcats, foxes, wolves, deers, mouflons, and other animals that do not hibernate and remain active during winter.

DO YOU KNOW?

  1. Winter doesn't get to the worms! Before the cold sets in, they can retreat into vertical tunnels deep in the soil, which is why they remain active all year round.
  2. The burgrundy snail digs a tunnel in the soil in the autumn, retreats into it, and seals its shell with a calcareous cover.  
  3. With winter activities in the mountains (such as backcountry skiing, winter alpinism...), people often disturb animals. One of the more stressed areas in the Triglav National Park is the Viševnik area, which is the habitat of the Black grouse and wintering sites of the chamois.