The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-17
ONE OF NATURES WONDERS.
UNEXPECTED MYSTERIES OF THE
sszan HIBERNATING ANIMALS.


Creatures That Can Go For Months
ana Years without Food or Air.
Squirrels Whose Blood Gets Near
Freezing POint-Other Animals
That Are Put Into Long sleep by
Rest.
Albany Letter in New York Sun.
THE phenomenon of hiberna ton in an
imals, fish and reptiles" said a naturalist
who has made the peculiar and little I'M
derstood phases of animal life his par
tisular study, lis something that from its
very nature and surroundings cannot be
investigated, and consequently little is
known as to Its cause, or as to what ply
siological changes occur to animals that
habitually retire to concealed places and
lie dormant or in a lethargic sleep. for
days, weeks and even months. 1t Is known
that in the perfect hibernators the pro-
cesses of nature are interrupted during
the period of this long insensibility.
Breathing is nearly and in some hber-
majors entirely suspended, and the tenn
perature of the blood, even in the warmer
blooded animals, falls so low that how
of mysteries.
"A variety of Rocky mountain ground
squirrels, when in perfect Information, has
a temperature only degrees above the
freezing point of water, and when taken
from their burrows in that condition these
squirrels are as rigid as If they were not
only dead, but frozen. But a few minutes
not only alive, but full of life. This in
teresdng fact in natural history was first
demonstrated by the late Andrew Fuller
of Ridgewood, N. j., to whom friend
in the west sent a pair of these squirrels.
When the weather became cold Mr. Full
Ter missed his pets one day. He supposed
they had run away from his premises.
Nearly month later he found them by
accident curled up beneath a pile of straw
in one corner of an Enclosure on his place.
They were so cold and stiff that he sup
posed they were frozen to death. He car
ried them into the house to show his wife
the fate that had befallen the poor little
rodents in the harsh eastern climate.
While he and she were discussing the
matter sorrowfully, the squirrels began to
show signs of life, and shortly we're
friskng about the room as IL they had
not been apparently frozen stiff for weeks
Mr. Fuller then knew that the squirrels
had been in a state of Information and
it was such an extraordinary one that he
put them out of doors again to let them
resume that condition il they might, so
he might investigate it further They had
no sooner got into the cold air than the
lethargic state began 10 assert itself, and
Mr.. Fuller covered them with the stray
a month later he took their temperatures
and found 1t TO be as l have stated-only
three degrees above the freezing point Of
water. Again they came back to life and
activity when placed in the warm ROOM
but after a few hours showed plainly that
they were being bereft of their natural
winter sleep. Mr.. Fuller turned them loose
TO find it again. They found IL as before,
and they remained in that condition until
the warm weather returned in the spring,
when they came out as clipper as IL they
hadn't lost day or a meal
'As to the suspension of breathing in
hibernators, the fact is proved sufficiently
In the instances Of the raccoon and the
woodchuck When they have laid them
selves away for their winter sleep they
roll themselves up so comfortably and
press their noses in such a peculiar posi-
tion against their hinder parts that 1t
would be an absolute imposgibility for
them 20 draw a breath. The popular back
woods belief is that the bear rolls itself
up in this way and does not breathe, but,