Hibernation – Greenwood Guides to the Animal World

Beautifully illustrated, with numerous color images, Hibernation provides copious material for understanding these unusual animals. The book provides a thorough guide, perfect for research papers in biology classes, for understanding the behavior and biodiversity of a fascinating and unusual group of animals.

We share the earth with a wide variety of animal species, each of which brings something special to the diversity of the planet. By knowing more about how animals behave and live, we gain a greater understanding of how life evolved and the importance of biodiversity. Hibernation examines those animals that cannot migrate and are forced to remain in a habitat that is inhospitable and consequently sleep deeply for weeks or months. Known as hibernation for winter sleep and estivation for its summer equivalent, this unique trait involves many special behaviors – how do such animals prepare for sleep? where do they sleep? how do they store energy? how do they wake up?

Hibernation provides thorough coverage of the animals that have this unusual behavior, including:
• Mammals of the temperate zones, such as the ground hog and prairie dog, that can raise their temperature when in danger of freezing
• In contrast, the cold-blooded fish, amphibians, and reptiles that have no control over their body temperature, and therefore cannot raise it to avoid being frozen
• The northern bears that are the only animals to raise their young while hibernating
• The animals that live in semi-arid regions which must burrow into sand or mud and encase themselves in a waterproof membrane to avoid drying out.