Then the family comes out, and will take
anything that comes along in the way of food. During the long sleep
the temperature of the bear's blood is reduced to almost that of
the surrounding air. The power of will over the muscles seems to be
suspended, respiration is hardly noticeable, and most of the vital
functions are at a complete standstill--the entire body sleeping, as it
were. The male grizzly bear never hibernates. The young and the females,
however, build nests, one of which measured ten feet high, five feet
long, and six feet wide.
Bats are great winter sleepers, and in most of the known caves they can
be found during the cold months clinging to the walls and to each other.
During hibernation their respiration ceases almost entirely, and only
the most careful use of a stethoscope can reveal it. The air that has
surrounded numbers of them has been carefully examined and not the
slightest evidence found of its having been breathed; and, stranger yet,
they can exist in this condition in gas, that, were they awake, would
prove instantly fatal. A machine has been invented to examine these and
other animals while in this condition.
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