Ellen Terry Curious Nature Vail, CO Colorado  Back to: News
January 12, 2013 Follow News  Vail Daily column: True
hibernators hunker down for winter season  The Eagle Valley's
animals are now deeply enveloped in winter. As the temperature
drops, it is quite tempting for us humans to do the same. I'd
love to eat as much as possible then get cozy with my family and
friends. If we really followed the animals' lead though, we
would end up missing ski season. Unacceptable. Because we can't
sleep off our body fat in the winter, let's live vicariously
through the animals that do.  First of all, bears. They don't
really hibernate! Take a moment and forgive your fourth grade
teachers for perpetuating this semi-lie. True hibernation is
characterized as a dormant state where an animal experiences a
sharp reduction in body temperature and metabolism. Bears don't
actually have a sharp reduction in body temperature. What they
go through is called torpor. A bear in torpor will have a body
temperature around 88 degrees, not