Hibernation celebration

Happy Groundhog Day, everyone! There might not be much validity to the groundhog’s prediction of spring’s fate, but Groundhog Day is still a holiday worth celebrating.

I celebrate because not only do I get to share another unofficial national holiday, but also because I get to reflect on another winter of hibernation among my furry friends in the animal kingdom.

Today we sit in anticipation to find out if the groundhog wants to end his winter of hibernation. This interesting behavior among animals deserves recognition.

I think it’s fair to say that hardly anyone really enjoys sitting outside through a cold winter. But imagine being a tiny chipmunk or groundhog that has to forage for its own food and find a place to sleep. In the winter when food supplies are low, trees are bare and temperatures are freezing, some animals have to find an escape.

Instead of migrating to Florida, animals like chipmunks, hedgehogs and mouse lemurs are able to slow their heartbeat and breathing and lower their body temperatures in order to survive. They have reduced consciousness and are very hard to wake. This can last from a few days to many weeks.

Often these animals will refrain from excreting their bodily wastes during their hibernation period. This results in especially high levels of waste in the body, but luckily these animals have evolved to manage this burden.

Hibernation is controlled by hormones. The amount of hormones excreted by an animal’s endocrine glands determines how much sugar the animal needs to consume and how fast their metabolic system will go.

Unfortunately, some animals are at risk because of disturbances to the hibernation period. The white-nose syndrome is a fungus that is infecting bat populations in the eastern United States and is spreading fast. The fungus irritates bats’ noses and wakes them from their hibernation.

This unnatural awakening causes the bats to use up their stored energy faster than they should, and hundreds of thousands of bats have died as a result of starvation and freezing. Wildlife biologists fear that huge populations will get wiped out as many more bats continue to be affected.

The fungus is believed to be spread by humans who enter caves.  Because of this, many caves, including some in Indiana, have been closed to the public in order to protect our bats.

Better than a long nap, hibernation allows these animals to skip all the bundling up of winter. I have my fingers crossed for spring, but if Punxsutawney Phil would rather stay in his burrow, I understand. It must be mighty comfortable down there.