Able to hibernate

Hibernation is an extended period of deep sleep, or torpor, that allows animals to survive winter extremes. Reducing metabolic rate and lowering body temperature enables survival through cold periods when food is scarce or has little energy value. Hibernating species usually work hard to build up large fat reserves before they bed down, and subsist on this during their torpor. They might wake up at intervals to defecate or top up on food.

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About

Hibernation is a state of inactivity and metabolic depression in animals, characterized by lower body temperature, slower breathing, and lower metabolic rate. Hibernating animals conserve energy, especially during winter when food is short, tapping energy reserves, body fat, at a slow rate. It is the animal's slowed metabolic rate which leads to a reduction in body temperature and not the other way around.

Hibernation may last several days or weeks depending on species, ambient temperature, and time of year. The typical winter season for a hibernator is characterized by periods of hibernation interrupted by sporadic euthermic arousals wherein body temperature is restored to typical levels. There is a hypothesis that hibernators build a need for sleep during hibernation more slowly than normally, and must occasionally warm up in order to sleep. This has been supported by some evidence in the arctic ground squirrel.

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