Thrifty chipmunks. What kind of animal is a chipmunk and how to provide it with comfort at home? What does a chipmunk do in winter?

On Latin The name of the chipmunks is spelled Tamias. Regarding the Russian name, there are two versions of its origin. One of them is borrowing and transformation from Tatar language, where “chipmunk” is spelled “boryndyk”. The second option is an origin from the Mari word uromdok, but there are few adherents of this version.

Chipmunks are widespread in North America, they inhabit almost the entire continent. Everyone lives there existing species with the exception of the Asian or Siberian chipmunk, which is found in Eurasia and Russia.

Appearance

Depending on the species, the animals reach a size of 5 to 15 centimeters, the tail can be from 7 to 12 centimeters. Weight varies from 20 to 120 grams. All chipmunks have one common feature- five stripes that are located along the length of the back.

The stripes are separated from each other by black or gray lines. The rest of the animal's fur can be red-brown or black-brown. Because of external resemblance Most species of chipmunks are difficult to distinguish from each other. There are 3 in total, but each of them is divided into another 24 subspecies, so only specialists can figure out whether they belong to a particular family.

Where do chipmunks live? Photos, species distribution area

As stated above, large number animals lives in North America. The distribution of chipmunks is so wide that they are found both in central Mexico and in the Arctic Circle. The American chipmunk lives in the eastern part of the North American continent, while 23 subspecies live in the western part.

It is interesting to know where the chipmunk lives, in what zone of Russia. This Far East, Magadan region, Sakhalin island. Rare, but found in Kamchatka. But most of all he liked cedar and wide deciduous forests Primorsky Krai. IN good years the number of animals per 1 square km is 200-300.

In central Europe, there are chipmunks that escaped from farms where they were bred and were able to adapt to the wild. The last species is the small chipmunk, which inhabits Canada.

Habitats

Chipmunks belong to the squirrel family and look like squirrels. However, between the two types there is big difference. Squirrels prefer to spend a lot of time in trees, while chipmunks live on the ground. Most often they are found in forests, but sometimes they settle in open areas covered with bushes.

The forests where the chipmunk lives, in which zone, depend on the location. For example, in America there are deciduous forests widespread in New England, in Russia there is taiga, and in Canada there are coniferous forests.

Even though chipmunks live on the ground, they need trees. As a rule, where chipmunks live, there are windbreaks, a large amount of dead wood, and the ground is covered with plants in which it is convenient to hide.

These are the places chipmunks look for, and if there are no trees in the area, but bushes densely cover the ground, then they can adapt here. Another important requirement is the presence of a body of water nearby. Therefore, you should look for where chipmunks live in nature in the forests - on the banks of rivers and lakes.

Home for rodents

In order to make a house, the chipmunk digs a hole for itself. Its length can reach 3 m, the burrows always branch. In the hole there are always two branches that end in dead ends - these are the animal’s toilets.

There are always several closets for supplies and living spaces. In them, rodents line the floor with leaves. Here they sleep in winter and at night, and here their children are born and grow up. When they dig a hole, they hide the earth behind their cheeks and carry it away from the place where they live. Chipmunks in the forest carefully hide the entrance to their burrow. It is located under dead wood, in thickets of bushes, under an old rotten stump. Finding a mink without the help of a dog is almost impossible.

Life of rodents

Chipmunks love warmth and hate rain. This is why they show up in warm weather and frolic when they are warm. The exception is species that live in places with constant rainfall.

In winter, animals hibernate, but not as tightly as gophers. They periodically wake up and are refreshed with supplies from the pantries. The chipmunk sleeps with its muzzle on its abdomen or wrapped around its flexible tail.

At the beginning of spring, the inhabitants of the burrows, which are located on sunny slopes and are the first to be freed from snow, go out to explore. At this time, chipmunks are still inactive, spend two to three hours outdoors and prefer to bask in the sun. Most often they can be seen on the tops of trees in the sun.

At such times, the chipmunks do not move far from the hole. They eat buds on nearby plants or eat up winter reserves. When the sun warms up, rodents pull out damp supplies and put them in the sun to dry. If warm days again give way to cold ones, the animals go into their burrows and wait for real spring.

In summer, when it’s hot, chipmunks come out into the air early enough, but so that the ground warms up. They do their work before the heat of the day sets in, and their second exit is in the evening. In places where there is always warm weather and there is no heat or cold, chipmunks can be seen all day long. In autumn, animals crawl out of their burrows after the air warms up. This continues until it gets completely cold.

Animals do not tolerate rain and feel it very well. In places where chipmunks live, a few hours before a rainstorm begins, they stand on tree stumps and make special sounds that are different from their usual “talks.”

Offspring

Chipmunks prefer to live alone and jealously guard their apartments. During periods of mating, they communicate with the opposite sex, after which offspring appear. This occurs in May and then in August. In the spring, before the birth of offspring, a chipmunk can choose an old hollow as a home, because he does not have to think about wintering, and there are fewer enemies on the trees.

The Siberian chipmunk produces offspring once. The number of newborns is 4-8 individuals. Their relatives from America give birth two times, 3-4 times, to four cubs. Chipmunks become sexually mature in their first year of life. IN wild conditions The animal's lifespan is 3 years; in captivity, the figure can reach 10 years.

Young chipmunks for a long time spend time in the nest. When they are old enough, they begin to look for food near the entrance. Gradually they begin to go deeper and further from the hole.

While the cubs are small, the female is not far from the entrance to the hole and, in case of danger, begins to snort in alarm. Then the children quickly run back, squealing in response.

Enemies

Small rodents have a lot of enemies. This birds of prey, small animals, people and sometimes bears. The latter most often dig up chipmunks' burrows and eat their reserves. When an animal sees an enemy, it begins to squeak anxiously at certain intervals.

After this, the chipmunk allows the enemy to come to a distance of 30 meters and carefully examines it. If there is real danger, it begins to run, emitting a continuous frightened squeak. Chipmunks most often hide from their pursuers in the bushes or try to climb a tree. They do not lead their enemies to the hole.

Nutrition

The main food of rodents is what he can get in the forest. Mostly these are plant foods, but sometimes there may be small insects. Chipmunks love to eat buds, grains, tree nuts, and plant shoots. If any cereals grow nearby, then chipmunks happily feed on the grain from them.

Sometimes these animals can become real pests. With a small field located next to the hole where chipmunks live in the forest, you can completely lose the harvest. And all this is done by small rodents. In addition, chipmunks eat berries, mushrooms, and can eat apricots and other fruits carelessly planted by people near the hole.

Winter supplies

The chipmunk's supplies are quite varied. All types of food that he can get around his hole are used. The supply is maintained throughout the entire waking period.

According to researchers, where chipmunks live in Russia, their winter food supply reaches about 6 kilograms. The animal divides all its food by type, even grain different cultures is in different groups. All food is piled on a bed of dry grass or leaves, and the piles are separated from each other by partitions of leaves.

The extraction of grain is interesting. If the ears of corn do not grow too close, the animal looks for the plant richest in grain and jumps on it. The stem bends under the weight and, holding it with its paws, the chipmunk bites off the spikelet itself.

After that, he picks the grains, hides them behind his cheeks and runs into his hole. If the ears grow close and there is no way to tilt them, then the chipmunk bites the stem until it gets to the grains.

The coloring of the chipmunk is peculiar. Along the back, along a pale-whitish background, which turns into ocher-rusty at the back, there are five black-brown stripes. A striped pattern is considered primitive compared to a plain color. It is believed that the appearance of spotted cubs in monochromatic species (carnivores, deer) is more archaic than adaptive in nature

Where can I find a chipmunk?

In terms of body structure and lifestyle, the chipmunk occupies an intermediate position between the tree-dwelling squirrel and the completely terrestrial ground squirrel. The chipmunk is an inhabitant of bushes, undergrowth and windfall. It moves quickly on the ground and climbs trees well, but does both worse than specialized species - the gopher and squirrel. They find most of their food on the ground, less on bushes and trees. The claws on the toes of the chipmunk and the squirrel are short, curved and sharp, so as to cling well to the bark of trees; gopher claws are longer and less curved

The chipmunk's well-developed sensitive apparatus in the form of vibrissae should be considered as an adaptive feature for the tree-climbing lifestyle. There are about 50 of them on the head and front legs. The squirrel - a typical dendrobiont - has more than 70 of them, the ground squirrel has less than 40

The chipmunk deftly runs along thick branches, inclined trunks and logs and is very careful on thin branches. He reluctantly jumps from branch to branch and from tree to ground. It happens that, making his way along the branches for cones or berries, he breaks down. Jumping from a tree to the ground from a height of 5 m and above is more like a fall. At the same time, the animal intensively balances with its tail, with difficulty maintaining desired position body

The squirrel's jumps from tree branches resemble the gliding jumps of a flying squirrel. At first, the squirrel falls vertically, but, having picked up speed, it deviates from the vertical and glides. In this case, during flight, the squirrel can change direction and descend to the ground or onto a tree trunk. Its long, side-combed tail (33% of the animal’s total load-bearing surface) serves as a rudder and parachute.

Feed collection From the site nezumi.dumousseau.free.fr

The load-bearing surface of a chipmunk's tail is less than 18% of the total load-bearing surface, so it has difficulty maintaining the desired body position in the air

The chipmunk is worse than the squirrel and flying squirrel in moving along the trunks and branches of trees. He is a poor digger and does not make passages in the thick snow, as mice and voles do. The chipmunk has a highly developed instinct for storing food, which is generally characteristic of most squirrels. The presence of well-developed cheek pouches makes it easier for him to transfer seeds into the hole.

Since chipmunks have underground nests, they are largely decisive condition chipmunk habitat - the presence of light in mechanical composition and sufficiently dry soil for constructing shelters. A chipmunk digs a hole in dry, loose soil with groundwater no closer than 120-150 cm from the surface. The latter circumstance explains the rare occurrence or complete absence chipmunk in heavily humid and swampy places

What do chipmunks eat?

The diet of chipmunks is varied. It is not an exaggeration to say that the chipmunk eats almost everything it finds. It prefers pine nuts and pine seeds, depending on what is found in the animal’s place of residence. Where there are pine nuts, the chipmunk feeds almost exclusively on them. Larch seeds are rarely eaten, spruce seeds are eaten even less often.

“Whatever I don’t eat, I’ll snack on!” From the site thousandislandslife.com

The next category in terms of frequency of consumption is cereal seeds, especially cultivated ones. Chipmunks visiting agricultural lands cause significant harm to humans. In addition, rodents eat the seeds of sedges, quinoaceae, cloves, ranunculaceae, cruciferous plants, rosaceae, legumes, umbelliferae, asteraceae... This list can be extended at least twice. Mushrooms are a secondary food; Mosses are eaten extremely rarely. The chipmunk, unlike the squirrel, does not stock up on mushrooms.

The chipmunk, although it prefers plant foods, cannot be called an exclusively herbivore. It can eat a snail, a spider, even an ixodid tick and insects: grasshopper, locust, bug, beetle, and often eats ants and sawflies. In addition, chipmunks hunt lizards and pick up dead and weakened small birds; there have been cases of chipmunks eating voles

Chipmunks have a well-expressed instinct to store food. In the cheek pouches, the rodent brings 8-10 g of food at a time: 54 pine nuts, or 224 wheat grains, or 225 mouse pea seeds (the largest recorded values ​​are indicated). Up to 2.5 kg of feed can usually be found in a granary. The smallest reserves are in the burrows of young males who have hibernated for the first time, the largest reserves are in the burrows of old females

Reproduction of chipmunks

After wintering, males emerge from their burrows first. Females are inactive for the first 2-4 days; They usually sit on a branch or dead wood, basking in the sun. In a friendly, warm spring, mating takes place in a short time: from mid-April to early May; in a cold spring, it is delayed until the end of May. During this period, the animals emit peculiar calling calls. Both males and females call. Females, as a rule, do not respond to calls, but only respond. Males, hearing the voice of another chipmunk, rush to his call, responding with short, quiet sounds. When a female calls, sometimes up to 10 males or more gather. Fights sometimes occur between them. Chasing each other, the animals run on the ground, dead wood, and climb tree trunks. While the males fight, the females calmly feed. The male, having driven away all rivals or remaining near her while others are fighting, mates

Pregnancy lasts 35-40 days. The young are born en masse at the end of May, with an average of 6 in a litter. Newborn chipmunks weigh an average of 4.3 g. At first, the cubs have no regulation of body temperature. When cooled (for example, in the absence of a mother), they enter an anabiotic state; at the same time, their body temperature drops to the ambient temperature. In this state they can survive without food. long time. Thermoregulation is established in young people on the 10th day; on the 21st day they are completely covered with hair

Chipmunks in winter

Chipmunk hole

Chipmunks spend the winter in burrows. The structure of the burrow is simple: a short passage ends with a single nesting chamber. Sometimes there are blind holes in the burrows - latrines, most often in the burrows of females. The nesting chamber is lined with leaves, less often with grass, lichens and moss. There is no mound at the entrance to the hole: the animal scatters the excavated soil in the grass; therefore, the entrance to the hole can be difficult to detect

The chipmunk's hibernation is intermittent. The state of torpor alternates with short-term awakenings, during which the animal is relatively active. During torpor, the chipmunk is motionless. It takes the shape of a ball: the head is placed between the hind legs, the limbs and tail are pressed tightly to the body. In this position, the open surface of the body becomes minimal and heat transfer decreases. In a state of torpor, the chipmunk’s body temperature drops to 8-10, sometimes to 2.8°C. The number of respiratory movements is reduced to 3-4 times/min, and at times there are 2-4 minute pauses in breathing. During periods of awakening, the animal moves in the nest and feeds; his body temperature rises to summer levels (37-38°C)

Chipmunks hibernate alone. Experience has shown that when a male and female overwintered together in captivity, one of them sooner or later killed the other. There is a report of 12 chipmunks hibernating together in captivity. Already at the beginning of hibernation, six of them were killed. The author does not say how many animals remained at the end of hibernation.

Additionally: |

The animal chipmunk is a small rodent, it is a close relative of the squirrel. How does this striped animal differ from its brothers in the family? Where does he live and what does he eat?

There are 24 species of chipmunks, 23 of which live in North America and only 1 species in Eurasia. There are a lot of chipmunks in America; they live in Mexico and Alaska. Most rodents live in North America.

Eurasian chipmunks have inhabited a vast area from the European regions of Russia to Northern China, Korea and Japan. Chipmunks also live in Central Europe; they were brought there as pets, but some representatives escaped and took root in the wild.

Appearance

The chipmunk is small in size. The body of rodents is elongated, and the tail is fluffy and long, measuring 8-12 centimeters. Chipmunks grow to 14-17 centimeters in length, and they weigh from 40 to 120 grams, depending on the species.

Chipmunks' front legs are shorter than their hind legs. All species of chipmunks have a unifying feature - dark stripes on the back, separated by stripes of white or grayish color. The rest of the skin is gray-brown or red-brown in color.

The coat is short and thick. IN different periods Chipmunks change their color every year. Molting occurs annually from July to September. Chipmunks have small ears without tufts. Rodents have cheek pouches.

Chipmunks are very cute creatures.

Where does the chipmunk live?

These small animals live in North America and also inhabit the continent of Eurasia.

Behavior and nutrition of chipmunks

Chipmunks live in wooded areas. They hide among the branches and twigs of dead wood and windbreaks. Chipmunks live in close proximity to water, so chipmunks are most often found in thickets near streams and rivers.

Chipmunks are thrifty animals; they fill their holes with provisions as much as space allows.

Chipmunks dig underground burrows, although they can climb trees very well. When the home is ready, the chipmunk carries the soil in its cheek pouches far from the hole to make it difficult for predators to discover the shelter.

Chipmunks have long burrows. The burrow contains a nesting area, several chambers for storing supplies, and a couple of dead ends that the chipmunks use as latrines. Chipmunks line their living space with leaves and grass. Here the animals comfortably settle down for a while hibernation. Females use these chambers to breed offspring.

These rodents are herbivores.

Chipmunks are active during the day, but when the sun rises to its zenith, they seek shelter in burrows or among foliage. In dense forests with a large number shadow chipmunks feed throughout daylight hours.
When it gets colder, chipmunks rise to the surface less and less often, then they do not leave their holes at all. Chipmunks sleep from October to March.

These thrifty animals begin collecting food in the month of August. They fill their storehouses with nuts, acorns, wild seeds, oats, mushrooms and wheat. In this case, all products are placed on dry bedding in separate piles. Total quantity such reserves can reach 5-6 kilograms.

Chipmunks always live alone. If another member of the family enters the hole, a fight breaks out between the chipmunks. In connection with this, in captivity these rodents are kept in separate cages.

Chipmunks, like squirrels, are very nimble animals.

How do chipmunks reproduce?

Chipmunks are solitary animals; males form pairs with females only during the mating season. The female becomes pregnant 2 times a year. Babies are born once in May, and another time in August. Chipmunks living in cold areas only have one litter.

The pregnancy process lasts 1 month, after which 4-5 babies are born. In some cases, up to 10 cubs can be born. Newborns are blind and naked, their eyes open after 1 month after birth.

The mother feeds the chipmunks milk for 2 months. The young leave their mother already in the 3rd month of life. And in the first year of life, chipmunks become sexually mature. In the wild, chipmunks, as a rule, do not live more than 3 years, but in captivity these rodents live up to 7-10 years.

Many pet owners, due to the limited living space, prefer to have not large pets, but rodents that feel comfortable in a cage, delight with their loyalty and agility, and are quite suitable for the role of a pet and family member. This is exactly how chipmunks appear in our homes. Oh, we would like to tell you more about the latter. So, about keeping chipmunks at home, about taming these animals, about how and what to feed them, how to care for their health– you can learn about all this from our new article...

What does a chipmunk look like?

Chipmunks belong to a genus of rodents from the squirrel family. Their body length reaches 17 centimeters, the tail length is 12 centimeters, and their body weight is no more than 100 grams. On their backs, the animals have 5 longitudinal dark brown or black stripes, which prevent them from being confused with some other creature. Their ears are small, slightly pubescent, have a flattened shape, the hair is short and stiff. Chipmunks are distinguished by voluminous cheek pouches in which they store their reserves.

When you look at these creatures, you can’t help but smile. Ah, the funny characters from the children's cartoon Chip and Dale come to mind. By the way, they were chipmunks too...

Description of the behavior of chipmunks at home

Of all the rodents from wildlife Chipmunks are best suited to be pets. They have an elegant fur coat, a fluffy tail, they are graceful and elegant, and many of their habits resemble the habits of squirrels. However, chipmunks are smaller in size than squirrels and can live in a smaller cage space. These animals get used to people well and quickly become tame. Moreover, they are very clean and their cage does not need frequent cleaning, since they do not emit a specific mouse smell, like many other rodents.

The activity time of the animals falls on the dark time of the day, however, chipmunks are active during the day, therefore, you can easily observe them and even establish contact with your pets, so close that they will take food from your hands without fear. climb onto your shoulder.

As the experience of keeping these animals at home shows, 2-3 weeks are enough for them to adapt and get used to new living conditions so well that you could let them out of the cage for walks around the house. However, trust does not mean that you shouldn’t keep an eye on the animal so that it doesn’t do anything stupid - jump out of an open window, jump onto the stairs or chew a wire... You must protect it from the most dangerous pranks, but do it very tactfully and Be careful, because sudden movements and noise can ruin your entire friendship, especially if the animal associates you with the source of such noise.

It is noteworthy that no matter how well you feed your chipmunk, you cannot wean him off the tendency to stockpile. At the same time, the animal chooses the most inappropriate places for the role of storage room. So, be prepared for the fact that he will suddenly decide to store nuts in your slippers, or he will like not only something edible, but also some of your decoration. In this case, the loss should be looked for, first of all, among its reserves. After all, he, like, cannot resist everything shiny and sparkling.

In the wild, chipmunks are capable of laying reserves weighing up to 8 kilograms.

By the way, others often feed on them forest animals. And, if the animal can still retreat in front of them, then in front of its brother it will definitely not give up and will defend its “treasures” to the last drop of blood. Yes, yes, in their environment, chipmunks behave very aggressively towards each other, therefore, keeping several animals in one cage is very dangerous, they can injure each other or even kill. This applies to both male-male, female-male and female-female relationships. So, if you want to breed chipmunks in the future, be sure to take this point into account - a couple can be brought together only from spring to August, but from September it will be necessary to seat them different cells, since love ends for chipmunks at this time of year, and reckoning begins. The animals will constantly fight and behave aggressively towards each other.

Features of keeping a chipmunk at home

Despite the fact that these animals are very sociable and tame, nimble and nimble, and love to make nests throughout your home, you should not encourage such inclinations, and it is better to keep the rodent in a cage, only occasionally letting it out for a walk. First of all, this is necessary for the safety of the life and health of the chipmunk. The risk of domestic injuries and damage to your personal property is too great, so it is better to give preference to a metal cage for a permanent housing option. Wooden is not suitable, as it will very quickly pass (in our case, fail) the strength test.

In order for the chipmunk to have something to entertain himself with, install a running wheel in his cage, make shelves or tiers, and put up a small house - it will act as a nest where the animal will rest and hide its supplies. When cleaning the cage, be sure to clean the nest as well.

As for the size of the cage, they should not be less than 100 by 65 by 100 centimeters. It is recommended to install an appropriately sized tray under the cage into which the debris from it will be poured.

It is better to use fallen leaves or large wood chips as a filler for the cage. It is not recommended to use small sawdust, since chipmunks dig holes in the filler and the ingress of such small wood shavings can cause irritation of their mucous membranes.

Despite the fact that these rodents are quite clean - Still, don’t forget to keep their house clean, then no one will guess from the smell what kind of animal lives in your apartment.

Features of feeding chipmunks at home

Despite their somewhat predatory behavior towards each other, chipmunks mainly feed on plant seeds. They especially love sunflowers, nuts, apple seeds, as well as cultivated cereals while they are in the stage of milky-wax ripeness. From animal food, you can offer the rodent cottage cheese and milk. Some individuals willingly feast on mealworms, grasshoppers and other insects. There are known cases when chipmunks attacked indoor birds - and parrots, therefore, it is better to keep the birds in a closed cage, reducing the likelihood of a feathered pet encountering a chipmunk to a minimum. But, predominantly, the diet of rodents consists of greens, cereals, fruits, buds and branch shoots; dried and frozen fruits can also be included in it.

You should not train chipmunks to eat food from your table. Despite the fact that a rodent may willingly feast on sausage and sweets, this will subsequently negatively affect its health and can lead to the early death of your unusual pet. So, remember that The chipmunk must eat what is intended for its diet... You should also not give him peanuts and sunflower seeds too often - they are too fatty, plum pits - they contain cyanide, citrus fruits and a lot of vegetables - this can cause diarrhea in your pet.

Considering the peculiarity of these animals to hibernate in winter, in the fall it is worth increasing the feeding portions of the chipmunk so that it can put aside fat reserves for itself. Otherwise, the animal may not come out of hibernation or may be sick and recover for a long time after it.

Also make sure that your pet always has access to clean and fresh water. And, since chipmunks love to make a mess in their cage, it is better to have water poured into a water bottle that is used for birds. So your fidget will definitely not turn it over.

Caring for your chipmunk's health at home

With good care and compliance with our rules regarding the peculiarities of keeping these animals in captivity, your chipmunks can live 5-7 years. At the same time, throughout their lives, if you keep them clean and feed them high-quality and balanced food, they will be healthy. It is the poor conditions of detention and not correct menu become the cause of their illnesses.

As the experience of veterinary practice shows, most often chipmunk owners turn to specialists for help in cases where their pet has constipation, diarrhea, dental problems, skin diseases, injuries, heat stroke, inflammation of the cheek pouches... Despite the fact that some At first glance, the problems do not seem serious to us - it is recommended in any case to contact a veterinarian so that he can provide timely assistance to his patient. If this is not possible, you will have to provide first aid. So,

for cuts and scratches - the wounds should be treated with an antiseptic of moderate strength; for constipation - it is necessary to include fresh vegetables in the diet and give plenty of water to drink; for diarrhea - on the contrary, it is necessary to exclude vegetables and fruits from the diet and replace them with corn flour...

12.12.2016

Hibernation is a genetically determined adaptation of organisms to temperature changes. This is the process of slowing down the metabolism of animals and plants during a period when there is no access to food and other sources of life. In winter, animals hibernate and cannot leave their cold habitat. So, what animals hibernate in winter?

“Sleeps like a groundhog” - this expression did not arise in vain, because the animal spends 2/3 of the year (up to 9 months) in a state of slow metabolism. It prepares for hibernation in advance and accumulates fat. Usually, they are quite active, just before hibernation they run and walk a little, and a few days before sleep they stop eating altogether. Having sealed the entrance and huddled in the “bedroom”, the family remains motionless for a long time. There are about two breaths per minute and 3-5 heart beats (whereas in the summer their pulse is 88-140 beats), their temperature often drops to 0 °C - how can you toss and turn.

They prepare their bed from moss and tree bark in Siberia forest giants They dig a hole for themselves in a hard-to-reach place (near a swamp, under the root of a fallen tree), the entrance is often covered with branches, brushwood or moss. They don’t forget to leave an outlet. Before hibernating, they eat fat. Where they grow cedar pines, the clubfooted animals gorge themselves on nuts. The bear seems to sleep lightly, but does not feel what is under its nose. Voles, collecting raw materials for their nests, “cut” entire paths out of brown wool.

Badgers live in the steppe, forest and desert, where they build their impressive structures - burrows with many holes, exits and entrances, which are often tens of meters from each other. In such places, animals love solitude and do not allow their relatives to approach them. By winter, badgers store a lot of fat. Old males gain up to 32 kg of weight. Where winters are cold, they sleep from October to April.

In October-November, the common hedgehog settles down to spend the winter in a hole or between the roots of trees. His home usually has two exits, one of which is plugged with dry leaves. Having stuffed moss and leaves into the hole in his mouth, placing everything in a loose ball, he curls up and sleeps there until April. A hedgehog's body cools down during hibernation, but its temperature never drops below 5 °C. During this period the animal does not eat anything. If a hedgehog accidentally wakes up ahead of time, for example during a thaw, he may die of hunger.

May go into torpor when the temperature drops environment up to 10 °C, but this is not true hibernation. They remain relatively active, but all of their body's metabolic rates slow to a crawl. Outwardly, this manifests itself in body rigor and immobility for several hours a day. Hamsters spend the rest of the day searching for food.

In northern and middle latitudes, these creatures spend the winter in deep hibernation, lasting up to 7 months, wrapped in their wings. During the thaw period, mice sometimes wake up and even fly. During hibernation, their body temperature drops to 10 °C and below (in the active state it exceeds 40 °C), so in severe frosts bats often die from hypothermia.

The design of a gopher's hole is simple and practical: an inclined passage filled with earth for the winter, and from the nesting chamber a vertical branch goes up, slightly not reaching the surface. This way he can hear everything and feel safe at the same time. The gopher sleeps for up to 6.5 months a year in a characteristic position - sitting on its hind legs, bending its head to its abdomen and covering itself with its tail.

In cold regions of the Earth, when the ambient temperature drops to 6-9 °C, land (grass and sharp-faced) and aquatic (lake) frogs prepare for hibernation. The lake frog partially buries itself in the silt at the bottom of the reservoir, while its land-dwelling counterparts look for secluded places in the burrows of other animals, under the roots of trees, in basements, etc. There they remain in a state of torpor until the onset of spring.

In the fall, chipmunks prepare their nest. If there is a good hole under the roots, they use it; if not, then they will dig a simple hole with a corridor, storage rooms, a living room and a toilet. The chipmunk carries nuts in its cheek pouches, storing them in several pantries. He does not sleep as soundly as a gopher or a marmot; he remembers the wealth he has accumulated. He wakes up from time to time, eats a few nuts and goes back to sleep.

These animals sleep a lot, in moderate climatic zone up to eight months a year. Some species prefer to winter in underground dwellings or hollows, while others make nests in trees. There are species sleeping in large groups, and in an unusual position - on the back, covering their bellies with their tails. Like all sleeping animals, the dormouse's body temperature drops and its heart rate slows.

This list does not include all animals that hibernate during unfavorable periods of the year. After all, hibernation occurs not only in winter, but also in summer. If we talk about a protective reaction from the cold, then this method of waiting out the unfavorable season is also used, for example, by opossums, snakes, lizards, some turtles, bumblebees, and American nightjars.