Back by popular demand–Do Beavers Hibernate and Other Important Questions

Dear Lake Superior Spirit readers,

 I know you’ve been wondering.  You’ve been asking yourself for days–weeks, even–“Do beavers hibernate?”  Since I have answered this question before on my firstborn WordPress blog, Opening the Door, Walking Outside, and it’s been Googled repeatedly (like I’m an Authority) it’s time to do a Repeat Performance of this Important Question. The post is re-blogged here, almost in its original wording, but with different exciting & interesting photographs. Read carefully.  As always, there will be a Quiz.

Beaver den in winter

Just think how many things we don’t know about nature.

For example, I just had to Google the Question “Do beavers hibernate?”

You would think someone who lives in the North Woods would know the answer to this question.  I thought I knew; maybe, perhaps, yes they do, no they don’t, let’s just get it over with and Google.

Google pointed its wise finger to several websites which provided the definitive answer:  You Silly Questioner.  Of course beavers do not hibernate.  Don’t you know they eat the inner bark of trees during the winter?  Don’t you know that because the surface of their ponds may freeze solid, making it difficult to get trees, the beaver will chew down extra ones for an underwater food cache located near the den or lodge?  Don’t you know that?

Beaver in springtime

So now you’re wondering about otter, I suppose.  You want to know if otter hibernate.  I am here to tell you “Facts you Otter Know“.  They are definitively active all year-round. Cold weather does not inhibit their behavior.  In fact the author of the hyperlinked article insists that the otter loves ice and snow.  You otter know that.

Bears hibernate.  You knew that, right?  Well, I am going to rock your world view, because some scientists disagree that bears actually hibernate in the same way as other animals.  That’s because they wake up frequently and their metabolism does not slow to nearly the same degree as, say, a possum or badger.  Why some mama bears even give birth during the winter, requiring a degree of alertness to care for the new cubs.  These scientists prefer to call this behavior denning rather than hibernating.  (It IS amazing what a Google search will teach you.)

This bear "dens" right now. He does not hibernate, contrary to public belief.

Another source just revealed that bears and raccoons torpor during the winter.  This source said that the raccoons sometimes go out to hunt before returning to their torpor-like state.  My husband can verify that.  He caught a big lake trout ice fishing and was saving the carcass in the snow and the raccoons stole it in the winter.

This raccoon baby is torpors today.

Here is a partial list of animals hibernating around here this very minute according to wisegeek: chipmunks, ground squirrels (I beg to differ.  A red squirrel climbed the exterior wall, sat on the window and peered inside while I ‘denned’ at the computer this afternoon), hamsters (not any hamsters in these woods unless they escaped from someone’s house), skunks, bats, and badgers.

Let us not forget our non-mammal friends, either.  The snakes that scared you last summer are sound asleep in a coma-like hibernation.  When we bring in our wood from the wood pile to wood room, we find shedded snake skins everywhere.  Sometimes we hang them up for decorations in the wood room.  I kid you not.  Back to our hibernation discussion.  Here are some more non-mammals:  lizards, frogs, toads, turtles and bees are all hibernating.

Frogs are hibernating...sleep tight, dear frogs...

One bird, the Western Poor Will, is considered a hibernating bird.  I can tell you what birds do NOT hibernate.  The chickadees, nuthatches, finches, blue jays, woodpeckers and juncos have all been seen near the bird feeder already this winter.  They are hard to photograph.  They flutter and swoop and dive so quickly all you can capture is a blurry whirr of wings.

The chickadees at Catherine’s house yesterday were more relaxed.  You can see the non-hibernating bird here:

You just saw this chickadee photo on my blog the other day. But since I needed another chickadee photo...

Oh yes.  I would also like to add that I did not hibernate today.  Barry had to go to the Trading Post, so I hitched a ride.  Then he dropped me off about a mile or more from our house and I walked home.  It was cold, but not freezing cold.  Snowy, but not too snowy.  The only non-hibernating animals spotted were ravens lunching on a deer carcass.  (I decided to spare you the deer carcass photo.)

Beaver dam in spring

(Dear reader, this blog was originally published on December 6th, 2009.  You can peruse the initial blog, followed by this one, very, very carefully to see what I changed.

Here is your quiz.  Don’t you dare peek back to check the answer!  That would be cheating.  Only I can peek back to find the answers.  1.  What do beavers eat during the winter?  Do badgers hibernate or torpor?  What are the bees doing now?)

You didn’t expect to go back to school today, did you?   🙂

P.S.  It’s a joke about the “Back by popular demand”.  Don’t we wish?