Hibernation

Hibernation is a state of inactivity and metabolic depression in animals, characterized by lower body temperature, slower breathing, and lower metabolic rate.

Hibernating animals conserve energy, especially during winter when food is short, tapping energy reserves, body fat, at a slow rate.

It's the animal's slowed metabolic rate which leads to a drop in body temperature and not the other way around.

The first exhibit I'd like to present is the Animal Hibernation focusing on bears and their muscle tissues:

Animals that hibernate include bats, some species of ground squirrels and other rodents but the most famous considered hibernator is the bear. Many bears of northern regions are assumed to hibernate in the winter. While many bear species do go into a physiological state called hibernation or winter sleep, it is not true hibernation. In true hibernators, body temperatures drop to near ambient and heart rate slows drastically, but the animals periodically rouse themselves to urinate or defecate and to eat from stored food.

The body temperature of bears, on the other hand, drops only a few degrees from normal and heart rate slows only slightly. They normally do not wake during this "hibernation", and therefore do not eat, drink, urinate or defecate the entire period. Higher body heat and being easily roused may be adaptations, because females give birth to their cubs during this winter sleep.

It can therefore be considered a more efficient form of hibernation because they don't need to be awake through the entire period, but they are more quickly and easily awakened at the end of their hibernation. They have to stay in a den for the whole hibernation.

Bears Muscle tissue during hibernation:

One issue that has aroused curiosity between physiologists for years is how hibernating mammals, such as bears, avoid extreme muscle wasting during hibernation.

How does a mammal prevent its muscles from degrading after going for months without eating? A new study offers some clues. A group from the University of Barcelona studied hibernating bears and identified specific blood plasma components which prevent protein breakdown. The bears' metabolisms preferentially burn their stored fat and therefore preserve muscle mass that would otherwise be rapidly degraded and broken down for energy.

The researchers conducted an experiment in which they injected rats with bear plasma, and observed a 40% reduction in chemical reactions that cause animals consume muscles for energy.

The Second Exhibit- Hedgehogs Hibernation:

The triggers that cause hedgehogs to hibernate are cold and a lack of food, and males are thought to hibernate first, although they will wake up earlier than females.

Hedgehogs have two sorts of fat, brown and white - the white fat (which is about 1/3 the total body fat just before hibernation) supplies the energy during hibernation, while the brown fat supplies the energy used when the hedgehog may wake up for brief periods during the winter, and when the hedgehog comes out of hibernation in the spring.

If the hedgehog does not have sufficient fat stores, it will not survive hibernation - hedgehogs should weigh at least 700 grams (about 1 & 1/2 lbs) if they are to hibernate successfully.

Hedgehogs sleep in a nest or hibernaculum - the hedgehog brings grass and leaves to its nesting site, builds a pile and then burrows inside and turns round and round packing the leaves flat and ending up with walls up to 10cm thick. A new nest is built in this way every winter.

My trip to Turkey

Unlike the previous writing assignment in which the subject was pretty easy to choose, at this one it took pretty long for me to….
The place I chose eventually is Topkapi Hotel in Anatalia, Turkey.
I have been there during my summer vacation.

In one word: AMAZING! This place is huge, like 10 square miles of restaurants, residence areas, basketball, football, volleyball, tennis fields and more, I can promise that everything a normal person can imagine in a hotel is there.

When my family and I arrived we were accepted by a receptionist. He gave us 2 keys for each room (we had 1 room for me and my bro' and another room for the younger brother and our parents). The rooms were kind of average, they had air conditioning, nice beds, a single chair, a middle size TV with Israeli channels and a normal bath and toilets.

We could eat anytime we wanted, the dining room was opened 24/7.
4 meals were served every day, breakfast, launch, dinner and a midnight meal. I believe it is unnecessary to say that the food was very good. There were 2 pools, the first one was huge and the other one was tiny, I think it was for younger kids, like babies or something like that…
The pool had many different water slides and sliding on them was fun.

I believe I've already mentioned it, the hotel had restaurants, 5 different types: Italian, Turkish, Mexican and I can't remember the rest cause I didn't have time to eat at all of them but I can assure you that the food was beyond excellent.

The hotel also had a private beach. I remember there was a small marine on the water in which we could sleep or rest there. We also did water skiing and it was one of the most extreme experiences I have ever had in my whole life.

To sum up, we sure had a lot of great time together, we did whole bunch of family stuff but I will probably talk about it some other time. I enjoyed very much writing it and I hope you'll enjoy reading.