{"id":62,"date":"2023-06-09T11:18:11","date_gmt":"2023-06-09T10:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbanhedgehogs.uk\/?page_id=62"},"modified":"2024-12-28T11:44:03","modified_gmt":"2024-12-28T11:44:03","slug":"what-is-hibernation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/urbanhedgehogs.uk\/index.php\/about-the-project\/what-is-hibernation\/","title":{"rendered":"What is hibernation?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Mammals (including humans) normally regulate their body temperature in a stable range (in humans ~37C).  However, some mammals can save energy for certain periods of time by entering hibernation and allowing their body temperature to vary with the environmental temperature (see figure below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hibernation is often (but not only) found in animals during winter, when it is cold and not much food is available. During hibernation, body temperature is reduced to more or less the temperature of the environment and heart rate is slowed down in a process called <em>torpor.<\/em> Torpor bouts can last a few days or weeks and torpor bouts are usually interrupted by regular <em>arousals<\/em> during which the body temperature returns to normal  and the animal may be active for a few hours.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"705\" src=\"http:\/\/urbanhedgehogs.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Untitled-5-1024x705.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-57\" srcset=\"https:\/\/urbanhedgehogs.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Untitled-5-1024x705.png 1024w, https:\/\/urbanhedgehogs.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Untitled-5-300x207.png 300w, https:\/\/urbanhedgehogs.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Untitled-5-768x529.png 768w, https:\/\/urbanhedgehogs.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Untitled-5-1536x1058.png 1536w, https:\/\/urbanhedgehogs.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Untitled-5.png 1899w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 706px) 89vw, (max-width: 767px) 82vw, 740px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Example of a typical winter hibernation, i.e. a sequence of torpor bouts, interrupted by regular arousals. Figure reproduced from <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.biologists.com\/jeb\/article\/219\/16\/2469\/15599\/Telomere-dynamics-in-free-living-edible-dormice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hoelzl et al 2016<\/a>; created with biorender.com.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Some animals can also use something called <em>daily torpor<\/em> for only a few hours of the day, which allows them to save energy while they still continue to be out and about during their active period (which is often at night). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/urbanhedgehogs.uk\">T<\/a><\/em><a style=\"font-style: italic;\" href=\"https:\/\/urbanhedgehogs.uk\">ake me <\/a><a style=\"font-style: italic;\" href=\"https:\/\/urbanhedgehogs.uk\">back to the project page<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mammals (including humans) normally regulate their body temperature in a stable range (in humans ~37C). However, some mammals can save energy for certain periods of time by entering hibernation and allowing their body temperature to vary with the environmental temperature (see figure below). Hibernation is often (but not only) found in animals during winter, when &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/urbanhedgehogs.uk\/index.php\/about-the-project\/what-is-hibernation\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;What is hibernation?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":12,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanhedgehogs.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanhedgehogs.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanhedgehogs.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanhedgehogs.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanhedgehogs.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/urbanhedgehogs.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92,"href":"https:\/\/urbanhedgehogs.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62\/revisions\/92"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanhedgehogs.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanhedgehogs.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}