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Index of Subjects This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --Boundary_(ID_90VgTCfi0LDPk4VRg979bQ) Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Jim Wolford wrote: > Hiding from the snow and cold is not the same thing as hibernation. Real > hibernators include deep hibernators and shallow hibernators; others like > raccoons can exhibit various forms of temporary torpor, which is a lack of > activity and somewhat slower metabolism. Deep hibernators include > groundhogs/woodchucks, chipmunks and other kinds of ground squirrels (none > in Nova Scotia), meadow and woodland jumping mice, and bats. Bears are > shallow hibernators, which are fairly easy to arouse during their "sleep" > with metabolism that is nowhere near as slowed down as in deep hibernators. > Deep hibernators paradoxically have to wake up or arouse at regular > intervals (about every 3 weeks? in ground squirrels, and this is very > energy-consumptive (thus they should never be otherwise aroused during > winter, e.g. bats in caves). Bears, on the other hand, do not have this > pattern of timed arousals, and they go for several months without urinating > or defecating or eating. Red squirrels and flying squirrels (and gray > squirrels) are not either deep or shallow hibernators, but during very cold > weather may retire into underground tunnels (or tree nests); flying > squirrels gang up in natural tree cavities in winter but do not hibernate. > > Who can contribute more or corrections to this about winter sleep vs. > inactivity? > > Carnivores like coyotes & foxes and bobcat & lynx & cougar/puma, deer, > beavers, muskrats, weasels and most of their kin (mustelid family)(otter, > fisher, marten, mink) are active all winter. Skunks (another mustelid) are, > I think, either very shallow hibernators or just exhibit torpor during the > coldest parts of winter?? > > Most small mammals other than the jumping mice are active all winter (rats, > mice, voles, shrews, star-nosed moles). > > Cheers from Jim in Wolfville > ---------- > From: Roland McCormick <roland.mccormick@ns.sympatico.ca> > Reply-To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca > Date: Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:37:17 -0400 > To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca > Subject: Re: [NatureNS] raccoon question > > I do not know what the books say about racoons and hibernation, but I expect > it is the same with them as with bears, groundhogs, and other creatures that > stay away from snow and cold weather. I have never known of a racoon > travelling around in the winter. I am told that bears sometimes come out > during a mild spot in the weather, and everyone knows that Feb 2 is ground > hog's day. So far as I am concerned all of these animals hibernate in the > sense that they find a den and sleep and lose a lot of fat during the winter > months. Perhaps that would be a good thing for many of us to do. > > Roland > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "David & Alison Webster" <dwebster@glinx.com> > To: <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca> > Sent: Friday, January 04, 2008 1:26 PM > Subject: Re: [NatureNS] racoon question > > > >> Hi All, Jan 4, 2008 >> Depth of unconsolidated snow (about 30 cm here now) is an additional >> factor I think. Swimming through soft snow is an energy intensive way to >> get around. >> DW, Kentville >> >> Eleanor Lindsay wrote: >> >> >>> Heather Drope wrote: >>> >>> >>>> A friend has racoons on or near his property. He enjoys them but says >>>> they are missing right now and wondered if they hibernate? Heather D. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> I consistently never see raccoons around my place when the weather is >>> severe. >>> Eleanor Lindsay >>> >>> >> >> -- >> No virus found in this incoming message. >> Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: >> 269.17.13/1208 - Release Date: 1/3/2008 3:52 PM >> >> >> > > > Over the past 30 years I have found winter raccoon activity around my home to be consistently weather/ temperature related; I follow their activity closely in order to decide whether to take my bird feeders in at night! As a general rule, I consider it completely safe to leave to leave feeders out when the temperature is -10C; between -5 to -10C I sometimes also leave them out, depending on other weather conditions. Below -5C I _always_ take them in. Since following this regime I have never lost any more feeders! Eleanor Lindsay --Boundary_(ID_90VgTCfi0LDPk4VRg979bQ) Content-type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <title></title> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> Jim Wolford wrote: <blockquote cite="midC3A45712.11116%25jimwolford@eastlink.ca" type="cite"> <pre wrap="">Hiding from the snow and cold is not the same thing as hibernation. Real hibernators include deep hibernators and shallow hibernators; others like raccoons can exhibit various forms of temporary torpor, which is a lack of activity and somewhat slower metabolism. Deep hibernators include groundhogs/woodchucks, chipmunks and other kinds of ground squirrels (none in Nova Scotia), meadow and woodland jumping mice, and bats. Bears are shallow hibernators, which are fairly easy to arouse during their "sleep" with metabolism that is nowhere near as slowed down as in deep hibernators. Deep hibernators paradoxically have to wake up or arouse at regular intervals (about every 3 weeks? in ground squirrels, and this is very energy-consumptive (thus they should never be otherwise aroused during winter, e.g. bats in caves). Bears, on the other hand, do not have this pattern of timed arousals, and they go for several months without urinating or defecating or eating. Red squirrels and flying squirrels (and gray squirrels) are not either deep or shallow hibernators, but during very cold weather may retire into underground tunnels (or tree nests); flying squirrels gang up in natural tree cavities in winter but do not hibernate. Who can contribute more or corrections to this about winter sleep vs. inactivity? Carnivores like coyotes & foxes and bobcat & lynx & cougar/puma, deer, beavers, muskrats, weasels and most of their kin (mustelid family)(otter, fisher, marten, mink) are active all winter. Skunks (another mustelid) are, I think, either very shallow hibernators or just exhibit torpor during