It is cold, very cold. Lately the temperature at night has gone down into the teens and rises only a little above the freezing point during the day. I don't deal well with cold weather. After all, I'm just not used to it. I grew up in Georgia and spent most of my adult life moving around to areas known more for hot summers than cold winters. So, this weather makes me wish I could go into a state of hibernation or at least a state of torpor until it gets a little warmer out.
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| Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons |
Not all animals that go into dens or burrows during colder weather enter into true hibernation. Skunks, badgers, and raccoons enter into a state of torpor which is different from hibernation in that they can actually wake-up, move around, and eat when they need to instead of sleeping away the whole winter. Their body temperature decreases as does their heart rate which allows them to conserve energy. Bears, on the other hand, aren't really true hibernators at all. Their body temperature only decreases slightly and they often wake-up and move around in their dens and may come out for food if they get really hungry. So basically, bears are a lot like people during the winter.
Unfortunately humans can't truly hibernate or even go into a state of torpor. If our body temperature falls too much we suffer from hypothermia which ain't a good thing. Prolonged hypothermia = death and not happy-sleep-hibernation time. I know, you're probably just as disappointed as I am. Doctors have been researching the possibility of putting people into a state of hibernation to help with various illnesses and reduce the shock of some surgeries, but they haven't been able to get past that hypothermia problem. How nice would it be to ride out some painful or debilitating injury or illness by just sleeping it off for a few months? Alas, that isn't going to happen anytime soon.
As intelligent as humans (think they) are you'd think we would have this hibernation thing figured out by now. We have been watching animals sleep for thousands of years and still don't know much about it. I guess that's the price we have to pay for intelligence: we have to be awake during winter so we can sit
around and complain about how cold it is outside.
2 comments:
It doesn't work for everything, but it is brilliant to have sources like Fresh Direct and Amazon.com... and versions of wine.com... deliver whatever I need to my door so I only leave the house if I really, REALLY need something.
Which is usually an ingredient for something I'm cooking.
Winter = Torpor
Well said.
Most women are in a state of torpor between the dates of their wedding and their divorce. But since that's a natural occurance that scientists don't get credit for discovering, it's not well documented.
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