The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1897-12-29
SOMERSET, PA, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30 1897.

found lethargy. And this hamster wa
kept in a room where there was no fire
The animal rolled itsesf up in a corner
but presently woke up and came out
1t was i'm the best of health, but dice
in few suffocated,' Professor
Browne declared, because it could no
have confined airp
sour own familiar wild animals, the
bear, the raceoon and the woodchuck-
the ground hog of colloquial nomencls-
ture- are elassed as perfect hibernator:
because they store no food for winter
but have acquired a thick, fatty secre-
ton between the skin and flesh, which,
it is supposed, supplies them with sus-
tenanee. As a matter Of fact, although
dormant animals absorb fat, il does not
enter into their digestive organs. The
same fat absorption occurs when the
animal is dead. If yoa kill rabbit, or
any other animal, and leave the en-
trails in it, the fat VIII disappear in a
the fat will remain. Food introduced
into the stomach Of alternating ami
NAL or reptile will be found undigest-
ed at all stages of its lethargy. l say
introduced into the stomach, because
it could get into the stomach Of such a
creature only by force or artificial
means, for a alternating animal in
variably goes into its peculiar state on
an empty stomach. Why? 1 do not
know. That is one of the mysteries of
the phenomenon. But the most mys-
terious of all things connected with hi
bernating animals is that, although
bears, and woodchucks are profound
hibernators, they produce their young
during their winter sleep.
'The woodchuek is undoubtedly a
perfect hibernator, and the female bear
is, but the male bear is frequently rous-
ed r'om his winter sleep, and is found
roaming about in midwinter. A bear
hunt when the snow is deep and the
cold intense is not an uncommon relief
TO the monotony of life in the back
woods, but the hunted bear is invaria-
bly, male. / have talked with scores
OF old and observant woodsmen, versed
in the ways and haunts of wild beasts
but none has ever been able to say yet
that he ever knew a female bear to be
killed after the season for Information
has come, aud none has ever yet seen a
gravid female bear. Where do the Ee-
males 90 during that time, that they
are never disturbed in their retreats?
No one can say.
"The raccOon is often gregarious in
its alternating, and it may be for that
reason it not infrequently comes forth
from its snug quarters in the hollow
tree and makes foraging trips about the
warmth engendered by
the huddling colony arousing one OF
more of its members from their lethar-
gy Il. ..se time. wOosei.acSs hiber-
nate in pairs, but never knew one OF
these prOverbially sleepy creatures to
leave its hole until warm weather
came-in spite of the alleged practice
it has of coming out invariably on the
second day of February to fix the
weather for the rest OF the winter. /
took the trouble once to dig into a
wOOdchuck's burrow on a Candlemas
Day-and warm, cloudy day it was;
just such a day when the groundhog Is
said TO come out of his hole and stay
out. found two wOodchucks in the
burrOw, with no L ore sign of life about
them than if they had been shot and
killed. From all outward appearances
1 could have taken them out and had
a game of foot ball with them without
their knowing it.
Squirrels are only partial hiberna-
tors, from the fact that they work all
and fall storing great quanti-
ties of food to supply them when hun
ger wakes them up during the winter,
if, indeed, they spend much Of their
time in sleep. Squirrels are systematic
and long-headed providers for the
Of a long winter, and not
only stow away their favorite food in
one grand storehOuse, but also make
deposits Of it in other places, so that if
one granary or nuttery is destroyed or
becomes exhausted the caches can be
upon. When the SNOW has
lain on the ground late in the spring,
holes may be seen in it at various places
In the woods where squirrels have dug
down through it TO reach nuts or grains
or acorns buried in the ground there
months before for just such an emer-
gency. The instinct with which these
little animals locate such spots, covered
as they are with maybe foot or more
Of snow, is unerring and marvellous.
If the snow should happen to be thick
ly covered with crust the squirrels are
unable to dig through it, and it is no
rare thing, toward the end of an un-
lOpg winter, for woodsmen to
find squirrels dead on the crust, where
they had been digging desperately to
the cache below, the supplies
at the main store having become ex-
hausted.
"a curious phenomenon Of hiberna-
ton, according TO Professor Browne, is
shown in an animal called the loir,
native of Senegal. This animal never
hibernates in its native cline, butevery
specimen that was ever brought to Ed
rope became torpid as soon as exposed
to cold. The common land tortoise, no
matter where it may be, and it is a vo-
racious feeder, goes to sleep in Novem-
Der and does not waken up again until
May. The hedgehog goes to sleep as
soon as the weather gets cold and re-
mains in unbroken slumber six months
"At the beginning of cold weather
bats begin to huddle together in punches
in hollow trees, dark corners in desert
ed houses, and in caves and crevices in
the rocks. They gradually lose all SEN