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Bears fell asleep
23 December 2021
News

Real winter has come to the exhibition "Tiger Trail".  And it is not snow or blizzard that testifies to this, but the winter sleep of our bears.  Six brown and three Himalayan bears have already arranged their cozy dens and are gradually going to bed.  True, while the sleep of the clubfoot is not too strong.  The reason for this is the warm weather.

To get a job for the winter, the bears have done a lot of preparation since the fall.  The main thing is to accumulate a sufficient supply of fat.  This was facilitated by an increased diet, including seasonal vegetables and fruits, meat, fish, bread, cereals, dairy products.  Another important preparation element is a cozy den.  In the conditions of the zoo, the bears made a place for winter sleep from a large amount of straw.  The keepers took care of the stocks of this "building material" in advance.

The winter sleep of bears should never be called hibernation.  This is exactly a dream.  After all, bears do not have a decrease in the level of vital activity of the organism, which is observed, for example, in a hedgehog or a marmot, falling into a deep numbness in winter.  During winter sleep, the body of the bear sparingly spends fat accumulations until the onset of spring.  The animal does not lose vigilance, it is easy to wake it up.  Therefore, in order not to disturb the fluffy dormouse once again, the zoo staff observe the maximum silence near the winter apartments.  From year to year, the winners in sound sleep are the brown bear Matvey and the female Himalayan bear Buba.  But the female brown bear Masha is always reluctant to fall asleep.