Do mice sleep in winter
Rodentologists can easily tell if mice sleep in winter. Actually - no, they don't hibernate. They have year-round activity.
Moreover, some species even breed under the snow in winter. But some species of vole mice still sleep in winter, and wake up with the onset of warmth.
A mink serves as a bedroom for them. Useful substances begin to accumulate since the summer. During the warm period, they store fat, which is consumed in winter.
Take care of our smaller brothers
It should be said that the period of hibernation, especially in urban conditions, is the most dangerous and risky period in the life of bats. People often find their "winter apartments" and ruin them, driving the half-asleep animals out into the cold, from which they die rather quickly.
Also, many explorers of caves and dungeons sin with such deeds, especially where they are of historical, cultural or material interest.
Such interference in the life of these useful creatures leads to their reduction, interferes with reproduction and causes damage to the population. This harms not only the species itself from an environmental point of view, but also provokes the spread of harmful insects and insect parasites.
In general, a person, as always, hurts himself.
Preparing for the cold
Wildlife vole mice prepare for winter from late summer. The first thing it does is to expand the “sleeping place” (mink).
This is necessary to insulate the burrow and add pantries for winter supplies. Throughout the entire period of cold weather, the mouse does not leave the hole. To warm the bedroom, the rodent uses dry grass, moss, wool or fluff.
Transformations also affect the body of the vole. In a rodent, the color of the coat changes, and it also becomes thicker.
The body gradually accumulates nutrients and fats. During winter frosts, the body temperature of a mouse can drop to indicators like that of an icicle, but the animal survives.
The mouse fills the pantries with a variety of food for the winter (cereals, seeds, dried fruit or grass). There were cases when up to 5 kg of grain were found in mouse holes.
Often, with the onset of cold weather, people find uninvited guests in their homes. This is usually done by those individuals who are too lazy to prepare for winter, they are looking for easy ways.
How rodents hibernate
How mice hibernate depends on environmental conditions and nearby objects. During the whole warm period, the rodent lives in the field.
If there are too many mice or the surrounding conditions change dramatically, cataclysms occur (fire, drought, flood, early frost), then they populate gardens, vegetable gardens. To equip housing, they dig holes at a depth of about 1 m, and in winter they go down to 3 m deep. Most often they spend the winter there.
Home features:
- a natural shelter or earthen passages can serve as a mink.
- The length of the burrows reaches 3-4 m. They have 2-4 exits and include an obligatory path to a watering hole.
- A separate room is a nesting chamber, as well as 2-3 storerooms with supplies for the winter.
- Storerooms with supplies are located at a depth of 0.5-1 m.
Rodents living in swamps do not dig holes. They build nests using grass for this purpose. They have such dwellings on tall bushes.
And for wintering, mice use not only burrows, but also haystacks, heaps left in the fields. Barns, sheds or outbuildings are suitable for this. And the most daring individuals go closer to people.
Who are they, creatures of evil or faithful helpers?
Bats (Latin Microchiroptera) belong to the order of bats of the cohort of placental mammals. These are the only animals in the world capable of continuous flight.
This is a very extensive order in terms of species, and the size of its representatives ranges from 3 to 50 cm in length, and from 5 to 80 cm in wingspan. But we will consider as an example not large tropical specimens, but small species inhabiting our European regions, the dimensions of which usually do not exceed the size of a sparrow or tit.
These flyers can live for 5-10 years and even longer. Zoologists claim that some bats under the supervision of science lived up to 20-25 years, and this is by no means an invention.
The thin limbs of bats resemble a bony frame, over which a skin membrane is stretched, which forms the wings. These creatures have a very thick fluffy fur on the body, usually lighter in front.
The head and muzzle have a truly bizarre structure, with which, in addition to wings, they usually associated all the fables about the otherworldly nature of these creatures in the old days. And in some ways it is possible to understand both our ancestors and modern, more mannered representatives of the fair sex, who are frightened by only one kind of these funny creatures on TV screens.
The muzzle resembles a pig's stigma with big ears, like that devil from the well-known Soviet film adaptation of "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka" performed by G. Millyar. And two canines protruding from the upper jaw can cause even greater fear and distrust.
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I must say that, despite the very poor eyesight, these creatures are quite nimble and perfectly orient themselves in space during the flight. In this they are helped by echolocation, that is, the ability to catch the reflection of ultrasonic pulses from objects in the environment.
These animals feed mainly on insects, which they catch in flight with extraordinary dexterity. Tropical bats also eat fruits, and there are vampire bloodsuckers among them. However, back to our insectivorous night flyers.
The same species that live in our latitudes perform an important function of combating many insect pests and parasites among them. These night hunters are a real scourge for mosquitoes, flies, moths and other not very useful insects, sometimes poisoning the summer season for both the average city dweller and the ordinary villager.
The benefits of bats are especially appreciated in rural areas, where during the night a flock of these creatures can very decently help a farmer who is always suffering from harmful insects.
Also, these creepy-faced flyers perform the function of a plant pollinator, carrying plant pollen on themselves and spreading it over a vast area.
How do they tolerate frost
The mouse, like most rodents, cannot boast of a large body size, so it is difficult for it to maintain a normal temperature.
To adjust this indicator, they try to generate more internal heat. The stronger the frost, the more heat is produced by the body.
If the rodent's vital activity decreases, then this is fraught with death.... If the body is cooled for a long time, then nutrients begin to be consumed dynamically.
And the supplies that fill the winter pantries are usually not able to fill the resulting deficit.
Types of winter sleep in mice
Many mammals, instead of making large reserves of food for the entire unfavorable period, prefer to go into torpor (hibernation).
This is most often due to insufficient or complete lack of access to feed stocks. Most often this applies to frosty winters, but some species also practice it during summer drought.
Tropical animals do not encounter this, as there are always food supplies.... In the tundra, mammals also do not hibernate, since this period would have lasted unreasonably long.
If the conditions become especially unfavorable (frosts, snowstorms intensify), some species of animals do not leave their nests for 2-3 days, sleeping there throughout this period.
Hibernation is a process that requires careful preparation. And this applies not only to external manipulations, but also to internal physiological processes.
Special mechanisms are triggered, which are necessary to prepare and adapt the body for the upcoming difficult seasons.
Before hibernation, organisms accumulate fat in the subcutaneous tissue or body cavities. The tissues are filled with vitamin C, the liver stores vitamin E and glycogen.
Animals look for a suitable place or build shelters for further hibernation. For bats, caves are an excellent wintering place. Bears build dens for themselves, and rodents make winter burrows for themselves.
There are 3 types of winter sleep:
- bears, badgers, raccoons, and a raccoon dog fall into hibernation. In sleeping individuals, the intensity of breathing decreases, blood circulation slows down, body temperature drops by 2-7 ° C. If such an animal is disturbed, then it easily and quickly awakens. How long winter sleep will last depends on environmental conditions, as well as on the ability to eat something.
- Real hibernation (numbness). Animals come out of it when the ambient temperature rises. Such animals stop breathing intensively, their blood circulation slows down. Body temperature drops to critical levels, the ability to respond to stimuli (sounds, touch) is lost. Such animals wake up slowly during prolonged thaws, after which they even try to feed: bats catch living insects in caves, hamsters or chipmunks eat pre-collected supplies.
- Real uninterrupted hibernation (suspended animation). The numbness with this type of sleep is even deeper. The frequency of respiratory acts, blood circulation decreases 10-20 times, metabolic processes slow down 20-40 times. Even strong irritants (noise, pain syndrome) or a short rise in temperature do not provoke awakening. During the period of suspended animation, 30-40% of the body weight is lost. First of all, fat reserves are consumed. Hedgehogs, some species of bats, and many rodents (marmots, ground squirrels) fall into suspended animation.
None of the above applies to vole mice. They are not prone to hibernation. These rodents prepare well for the winter period.
Only an insufficient supply of food can adversely affect vole mice during frosts. The rodents spend the period of severe cold in their nests, and they are shown outside only during thaws.
Optimal wintering places
So, where do bats hibernate, do bats sleep in winter, and where do they sleep?
To survive the winter successfully, bats need a reliable draft-free shelter with temperatures from 7-8 degrees to zero (but not lower) and humidity from 80 to 100%.
In the middle lane, such a winter environment is created in the dungeons, caves and basements, mines and adits, in the log cabins of deep wells, in attics, in the hollows of old trees.
Often, the animals move to wintering shelters in colonies numbering up to several hundred individuals. Large communities of bats spend the winter in empty abandoned pillboxes from the war, in the forts of the Brest Fortress.
Finding a suitable place is not easy, so winged mammals perfectly remember not only the attic, cave or basement itself, but also the particular area where they are located in it. From year to year, bats return to exactly the same place where they have already managed to winter safely.
