Interesting Facts About Animals in Winter Hibernation These include birds, raccoons, squirrels, skunks, mice, and honey bees. If you are in a geographic location that does experience a winter with cold enough temperatures, animals in winter in your yard or community most likely experience torpor. Torpor can last a day, a few days, or a few weeks. When in torpor, animals are easier to rouse. However, they come out of this low-energy state more often to feed and eliminate. Like hibernation, animals in torpor will experience a lower body temperature, heart rate, and breathing pattern. Torpor is a lower-energy, lower-activity state some animals in winter experience.
The body temperature of a groundhog drops from 98 degrees Fahrenheit to 40 degrees Fahrenheit! What is Torpor? True hibernators include chipmunks, prairie dogs (also known as woodchucks), some bats, turtles, snakes, reptiles, amphibians.Ĭhipmunks can reduce their heartbeat from 350 beats per minute to 4 beats per minute during hibernation. Their body temperature, heart rate, and metabolism will lower again. True hibernators do have periods of activity to find food, eliminate, or even give birth, but then they do go back into their state of inactivity. True hibernators are more difficult to rouse it can take several hours for them to be able to move around well enough to feed and defend themselves. DormouseĪnimals that are true hibernators will stay in this physical state for long periods of time (weeks or months) without eating or leaving their nest, den, or cave. True hibernators typically have a body temperature that will go below 68 degrees Fahrenheit or 20 degrees Celsius. True hibernation is involuntary this means it is triggered automatically by the animal’s body in response to the environment.
There are two types of hibernation we will discuss – true hibernation and torpor. During this time, the animal uses very little energy. Hibernation is when an animal’s heart rate slows to only a few beats a minute, their body temperature drops significantly, and their breathing rate is greatly reduced. Let’s look at each of these in more detail. Other animals will stay in the same area but will begin to gain weight, change colors, grow a thicker coat to adapt to the upcoming changes in temperature and food availability. Hibernators will begin to store up food, look for a place to settle in for the winter months, and some animals, such as bears, begin to eat more and store up brown fat.Īnimals that migrate may begin to move to their new habitat. Animals respond in their own ways to the photoperiod, most notably as fall and winter approach.) When the photoperiod or amount of sunlight increases or decreases, plants may respond by producing fruit, seeds, more chlorophyll, less chlorophyll, etc. Photoperiod changes also affect plants throughout the year. (Note: Photoperiod is the amount of time there is sunlight during the day.
In the fall, as the amount of sunlight during the day is reduced and hormonal signals happen, animals begin to experience changes in their body and behavior to prepare them for the coming winter. Some animals do not migrate or hibernate but undergo physical and behavioral adaptations while remaining active in the same habitat.įor example, wolves grow a thicker coat of fur yet do not hibernate or move to a warmer geographic location. Hibernation and migration are two ways animals in winter adapt. It’s truly all-inclusive!Īnimals in Winter – What are the Different Ways Animals Survive?Īnimals prepare for and survive through winter by adapting their bodies, behavior or both. Includes science experiments (with common household products), activities (even a fun bat STEM activity), nature journaling pages, 3-part Montessori cards, and a mini-reader book that has all the informational reading needed to go with the unit. This unit covers migration, adaptation, hibernation, torpor, and much more. Note: After reading the information about the behavior of animals in winter, have your student use our Animals in Winter worksheets and science activities available here.
#Winter kindergarten printable worksheets free#
Related post: While studying animals in winter, check out snow science with our Snowflake Science post with free lesson printable!
Let’s take a look, and don’t forget to check out the free resources we have linked here to help you round out your study of animals in winter. What happens to animals in winter? What is their survival plan? Some people feel sorry for the animals who have to endure the elements but don’t worry. In the winter, the temperatures plummet, the snow blankets the ground, the trees and bushes are stark and bare.
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