11 Animals That Hibernate Besides Bears. While bears may be the most famous animals that hibernate, they certainly aren't the only ones that sleep through the winter.

Hibernation allows many animals to survive winters, which are dark and cold, without having to migrate elsewhere or search for food under the threat of predation, injury, or death.

Some Animals Don't Actually Sleep for the Winter, and Other Surprises About Hibernation. It isn't just groundhogs—find out which animals hibernate and why.

Why don't wild animals hibernate for longer than domestic pets? The first thing to note is that hibernation periods are not fixed. Variance occurs not only between species, but also within them.

One animal that truly hibernates is the European hedgehog. Though hibernation periods among animals vary from a few days to a few weeks, most settle down during winter, when normal food supplies ...

Lots of hibernating animals build up big fat stores when food is plentiful so that they can use them up. When they're hibernating, fat tail lemurs can hibernate for up to seven months at a time.

All hibernating mammals have periods of arousal, which may occur weekly or monthly, depending on the animal. During these periods the animals stretch, move around, and sometimes urinate or defecate.

This "bearish insomnia" is affecting 29 of the 32 bears housed in the center. These animals have spent their entire lives in the park, so their instincts to hibernate poor—however ...