Have you ever seen a bear waking up from its long winter nap? It might look like just a hole in a tree, but inside, a bear is slowly waking up from hibernation. This happens every spring in places like Glacier National Park in Montana. When bears wake up, they don’t just jump up and start running around. They are very sleepy and take a while to feel fully awake. It can take them a few weeks to shake off their winter sleepiness!
Hibernation is a special kind of rest that some animals, like bears, use to survive the cold winter months. You might wonder why bears hibernate when other animals, like birds, squirrels, and deer, do not. Well, it all has to do with food!
During the winter, food is hard to find. Bears eat things like grass, fish, and berries, which aren’t available when it’s cold and snowy. Some bears eat nuts like acorns, but there aren’t enough to keep a big bear full all winter. So, bears hibernate to save energy and survive until food is plentiful again in the spring.
Hibernation is not exactly like sleeping. It’s more like pressing a pause button on a bear’s body. When bears hibernate, their heartbeat and breathing slow down, and they need less food and water. This way, they can live off the fat they stored up during the summer and fall.
Scientists are still learning about how hibernation works. It’s a bit of a mystery! But they think it’s why bears eat a lot before winter—to store up energy for their long nap.
Bears aren’t the only animals that hibernate. Skunks, groundhogs, and bats also hibernate because their food isn’t available in winter. They all have special ways to slow down their bodies and save energy until spring arrives.
Scientists find hibernation fascinating because it might help us learn how to pause our own bodies. Imagine if we could pause someone who is sick until they get to a doctor or even pause ourselves and wake up in the future!
So, bears hibernate to survive the winter when food is scarce. It’s like putting their bodies on pause until spring. Isn’t that amazing? There are so many mysteries in nature, and learning about them helps us understand the world better. Keep asking questions and stay curious!
Bear Hibernation Simulation: Create a cozy “bear den” using blankets and pillows in a corner of your room. Pretend to be a bear getting ready for hibernation. Think about what you would need to do before your long winter nap. Discuss with your family or friends what kind of food you would eat to store energy and how you would prepare your den to stay warm and safe during the winter.
Food Hunt Game: Go on a “food hunt” in your backyard or a nearby park. Look for things that bears might eat, like berries, nuts, or plants. Make a list of the items you find and discuss why these foods are important for bears before they hibernate. Think about how hard it would be to find these foods in winter and why hibernation is necessary for bears.
Hibernation Observation Journal: Start a journal to observe and record the changes in nature as winter approaches. Note the animals you see and whether they are preparing for winter. Draw pictures of animals you think might hibernate and write a few sentences about how they prepare for their long rest. Share your journal with your class or family and discuss the different ways animals survive the winter.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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(phone ringing) – Hi, it’s Doug. This looks like just a hole in a tree trunk, right? But watch carefully. You see that there? Inside that tree trunk is a bear waking up from its winter hibernation. This video was taken from cameras set up last spring by park rangers at Glacier National Park in Montana. Now, I would have assumed that when a bear wakes up from hibernation, it just wakes up and walks off. Nope, it turns out they’re really groggy. It takes them a while to feel totally awake. You can see this one just doesn’t look ready. Apparently, it can take a bear a few weeks to fully wake up from its winter hibernation. Someone named Anthony has a question about hibernation. Let’s give them a call now. (phone ringing) (transition sounds)
– Hi Doug.
– Hi Anthony.
– I have a question for you. Why do bears hibernate?
– Ooh, that’s a great question. In books and stories, you might have heard about bears that live in cold, snowy places sleeping through the entire winter. The idea of hibernating is kind of interesting when you think about it. I mean, people living in cold, snowy places don’t hibernate, and there are plenty of animals that are out during wintertime, too. They don’t seem to hibernate. You can still see birds, sometimes squirrels, deer. So why is that? Why do bears hibernate in the winter but these other animals don’t? Before I say anything more, what ideas do you have? Now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss.
Okay, you ready? Here’s one important clue. Have a look at these animals that don’t hibernate in winter, and pay attention to the kinds of things they eat. Like this cardinal or this squirrel. You see that? Notice that they’re eating things like seeds and nuts, either that they’ve stored up from earlier in the year or that people have put in feeders for them. In wintertime, there’s definitely not as much food around for these animals as there would be in summertime, but there’s still enough things like seeds and nuts that are around. Or in the case of deer, enough twigs, stems, and dried grasses for them to keep their bodies going through the winter.
Now let’s have a look at bears. No, not when they’re hibernating, but earlier in the year to see what they eat. Things like grass, insect larvae, fish, berries. Many of the foods that bears eat aren’t available anymore once it gets cold and snowy in wintertime. Some bears do eat acorns and hazelnuts, which are available in winter, but there’s just not enough of these around to keep an entire bear fed through the winter. And it’s not just bears that hibernate, too. Other animals that depend on food that aren’t available in wintertime also tend to hibernate, animals like skunks and groundhogs. They normally eat grass, which isn’t available in winter. Bats hibernate, too. These are just a few examples of animals other than bears that also hibernate in winter.
So hibernation seems to be a way that some animals deal with there being not enough of their food available in the wintertime. But how exactly does this work? Like, are animals that are hibernating really asleep all winter? I mean, it’s one thing to sleep in for a couple of hours one day, but imagine sleeping for weeks or months. Don’t they get hungry? Well, hibernation seems to work a little differently depending on the animal, but scientists have found out that in general, hibernation isn’t exactly the same thing as sleep. In fact, it can be helpful to think of hibernation less like sleep and more like an animal being able to put its body on pause, like a pause button.
Animals that go into hibernation in winter have bodies that are able to slow down. Their heartbeat slows down. Their breathing slows down. Their bodies wind up needing less of everything than they would normally need: less oxygen, less water, less food. How do their bodies do this? Well, so far most of this is still a mystery. We’re only just beginning to figure some of it out. There’s lots we don’t yet understand. But keep in mind, even though a bear hibernating is a bit like putting its body on pause, it doesn’t mean a bear’s body stops completely. Its body still has needs. It may not need to eat while it hibernates, but its body still uses nutrients stored up from before it went into hibernation. Scientists think this is probably why bears eat as much as they can and get so big in late summer and fall before winter comes.
A lot of scientists find the idea of hibernation super interesting and important, not just because it’s fun to know, but because think about it. Just imagine if we could figure out how to put our own bodies on pause. That would give us the ability to pause someone who’s sick or injured and get them to the doctor in time, or maybe even the ability to one day pause ourselves, wait a few hundred years, and get unpaused having traveled through time.
So in summary, bears hibernate as a way to deal with not having enough food in winter. Hibernation looks like sleeping, but in some ways it’s more like an animal being able to put its body on pause. That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks, Anthony, for asking it. Now for the next episode, we’re going to take a break next week, but we’ll be back the week after that with an episode you might not have seen before. When this video is done playing, you’ll get to vote on which one you think we should show. You can choose from “Why does it get cold in winter?”, “Where do bugs go in winter?”, or “Why is January the first month of the new year?” So submit your vote when the video’s over. I want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious and see you in a couple of weeks.
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