The winter weather has finally arrived in Israel, and we couldn't help but wonder: Is the phenomenon of hibernation, in which animals go into a state of inactivity in order to survive the cold season, even happening in Israel – and what does it even mean for the animals?
In order to understand the phenomenon, also known as "winter sleep," we spoke with Dr. Tal Pollak, an ecologist in the Arava region of the Nature and Parks Authority, who said that this is the mammals' way of preserving themselves in the winter. "The temperatures drop and there is not much food, so if the animal continues to act – it will lose a lot of energy in maintaining its body temperature and will also have no way to regain it, so it converges on itself, lowers its activity level and goes into hibernation," she explained to Israel Hayom.
Sleeping mice, photo: Getty Images
However, the same activity among most animals, according to Dr. Pollak, is especially suitable for countries where winters are significantly colder than Israel. "Since winter in Israel corresponds to European autumn, animals that hibernate in countries on the continent do not experience a significant reduction in activity to the point of hibernation, but actually only reduce their normal activity until spring," she noted. "Bats in Europe, for example, reduce their activity to such a degree that they become covered in a layer of ice. They protect and retain heat in their internal organs, but outside their activity almost drops to zero. In Israel, on the other hand, there is no significant cessation of activity, and bats simply reduce their exit from the cave. They continue to operate, but in a very moderate way."
"In Israel, there is mainly a decrease in activity in winter among small animals that have difficulty finding food and have difficulty maintaining their body temperature, such as rodents and voles such as gerbils," Dr. Pollak explained. "They reduce their activity and store more food in their burrow. Even larger animals are able to exist in Israel without hibernation, so we won't see them downgrading their activity."
Old bats, photo: Getty Images
Lizards such as harpoons and reptiles such as snakes tend to "disappear" in winter by congregating to their hiding places, but there is a significant difference between them and warm-blooded mammals, including hedgehogs. While the latter need to maintain their body temperature to survive, which is more difficult to perform in winter, cold-blooded reptiles increase and decrease their activity according to their cause temperature, so they can sometimes be seen during winter.
"Reptiles that do not maintain their body heat disappear in winter not because of the coma, but because their environment cools down and they cool down with it, so they reduce their activity dramatically," Dr. Pollack concluded. "That's why we won't see most reptiles in winter, like snakes, shrews and a host of lizards and other reptiles. In the end, hibernation does not exist in Israel, since most of these animals simply lower their activity level according to what is happening around them."
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