Let’s Chat: Torpor anyone?

By Linda Tooth on November 27, 2024.

Every workday morning when we gather we mention a barrier that could prevent us from having a fantastic day, and mine from now until spring’s reprieve will be the weather.

I wish I could say I was a lover of all things related to winter – skiing (swooshing down a mountain on a pair of sticks at uncontrollable speeds) or snowshoeing, or just being outdoors – but I am not.

I am the one indoors with a hot chocolate and an enjoyable book. For me, my distaste for this time of year happened in January of 1991, when like most young people I did not feel the need to wear appropriate winter footwear and I fell outside my parents’ house, breaking my ankle in two places.

I spent a week in the hospital and then months in plaster. It was an experience I hope never to repeat.

Where am I going with this? Well, I recently got thinking about hibernation, and how smart bears are to sleep during winter and wake up in the spring. But upon researching those majestic animals, I discovered they don’t actually hibernate. I’ll explain.

Bears enter a state of torpor. Torpor and hibernation are different. According to the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation, hibernation is reserved for certain wildlife to help conserve energy during our brutal Alberta winters.

Breathing, heart rate and metabolism slow and it is tough to rouse an animal in hibernation. A snake is an example of a species that hibernates (they can sleep forever as far as I am concerned).

Torpor, on the other hand, is known as a light hibernation.

A bear’s body temperature will drop, with their breathing and heart rate slowing down. Torpor lasts for a shorter period than hibernation, and it is easier to rouse an animal in torpor – though not recommended.

Bears will enter this state in October and will not emerge typically until April. They eat enough during the spring, summer and fall to sustain them during this light hibernation. They avoid winter -count me in – but have been known to poke their heads out of their dens if the weather is nice and warm during winter months. Sounds like a brilliant species.

Until I come back in my next life as a bear, the only way I can avoid Alberta winters is to keep saving and go to Mexico from October to April.

I have learned a lot lately and I hope you have as well.

Have a meowtastic day, and keep reading!

Linda Tooth is the positive culture co-ordinator at Sanare Centre

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