During a recent appearance on KLMJ’s Outdoors in North Iowa program, Franklin and Wright County Naturalist Aubrey Brandt explained how Iowa’s wildlife prepares for the state’s harsh winters and limited access to food and water.
“Hibernation is defined as a survival state where animals drastically lower their metabolism, heart rate, and body temperature to conserve energy during harsh conditions such as winter. They basically become dormant. Think about your night’s rest lasting weeks to months. Hibernation takes a lot of energy and is very difficult to come out of. Therefore, animals who hibernate typically don’t wake up during hibernation.”
With over 1,100 fish and wildlife species in Iowa—including birds, mammals and insects—Brandt says animals have adapted physically, physiologically and behaviorally to survive Iowa’s winters.
Many mammals, like woodchucks, thirteen-lined ground squirrels, and some bats, enter true hibernation for weeks or months. Brandt says other animals, including bears, raccoons, skunks, and chipmunks, experience torpor—a shorter state of dormancy that still conserves energy.
“Torpor is similar to hibernation in that the metabolism and heart rate slows and body temperature is lower, but nowhere near as drastically as hibernation. Torpor is also short-term, lasting hours to a few days. Torpor still helps conserve energy, especially during short-term food shortages or cold snaps, and it’s way easier to come out of. So animals who do torpor can do so multiple times during the winter. Hibernation is basically a long-term and intense version of torpor.”
Brandt says hibernation is exclusive only to mammals. Other animals such as reptiles have their own processes of surviving Iowa’s cold harsh winters.
Full interview with Brandt below
