Hibernation is great for animals that would otherwise have difficulty finding food during the winter months. Allowing your body temperature to drop down to just a bit above freezing slows the metabolism to where it's relatively easy to live off of stored fat. Some people might complain that you'd get nothing done for months at a time, but others surely would think that sleeping the cold season away is the next thing to heaven.
ln the case of the Yellow-bellied Marmot (a kind of woodchuck to any
easterners in the audience), they were widespread in rough country in central and
southern New Mexico during the last ice age, apparently thriving. But with the post-ice
age arrival of our Southwestern severe spring drought and decreased effective winter
precipitation, a real problem showed up. It's thought that somewhere along the line
came one or more years when the winter snows failed to provide enough moisture to carry
green herbage through to the start of summer rains and new growth. "Eat your
vegetables, children," was no longer a viable option.
Contributor: Arthur H. Harris, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.
Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Harris, A. H. 1970. Past climate of the Navajo Reservoir District. American Antiquity 35:374-377.