Question: are all animals able to hibernate and what does hibernating achieve for them?

Mike Ambler answered on 5 Nov 2018:

Great question!

Not all animals are able to hibernate, but a surprising range of them can. For example, every class of vertebrate (that’s animals with a back bone) has some animals that can hibernate. That means there are birds, fish, amphibians (frogs etc), reptiles and of course mammals that can hibernate.

There are even some primates that hibernate, and they are like distant cousins of humans: we share about 90% the same genes.

The advantage of hibernating is that it saves energy. A bit like when the TV or computer goes into standby or sleep mode, it uses less electricity. It’s the same for animals that hibernate, it allows them to survive when there is very little food around (or if it is too cold to go out and find food).

I am trying to understand how animals are able to hibernate to see whether it might be possible to use drugs to make humans do something similar: this might help them survive when they are very sick, and it could also help when we send people to mars!