Quote:
Originally Posted by Stefan-A
My point was, is it really rest? In the wild, a significant portion of them die during hibernation. Wouldn't that indicate that it jeopardizes their health? In the wild, it's often just a necessary evil.
In humans, I'd rather compare it to fasting, than to rest. Puts a great deal of strain on the systems.
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I was thinking of fasting as one parallel
and yes it can be a bit of a strain on an already deficient organism, but then again it can clear out disease at times
also I was thinking of the research that's been done with seasonal sleep cycles (at Stamford Univ.). There is some evidence that humans that sleep seasonally (longer hours in winter) have better functioning immune systems (lower incidence of certain illnesses)
I also wonder whether the ones that die during the winter months are the aged and otherwise frail (just like in human populations). Perhaps some of them are just in the wrong part of the den.
brumation may be primarily a survival strategy, but when it has become part of a species cycles over many generations, I imagine that it has gotten tied in with more than just their reproductive cycles, even though that may be the most obvious.
there is so much we don't know . . .