{"id":34536,"date":"2021-01-30T10:11:04","date_gmt":"2021-01-30T09:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cervovolante.com\/?p=34536"},"modified":"2021-01-30T10:13:06","modified_gmt":"2021-01-30T09:13:06","slug":"the-red-deer-in-hibernation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cervovolante.com\/en\/2021\/01\/30\/the-red-deer-in-hibernation\/","title":{"rendered":"The red deer in “hibernation”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Imagine that it has been freezing cold in your home for weeks, that you can hardly feel your legs and arms any more, that you have only been eating dried beans for days and that burglars are constantly trying to gain access to your house. \n<\/p>\n\n

This or similar is how ungulates like the red deer<\/strong> must feel in their winter habitat<\/strong> when ski tourers, snowshoe trekkers or freeriders invade. From November to March, the red deer’s diet is more meagre than dried beans<\/strong>. In extreme cases, this leaves only lichens from tree trunks and branches as food.<\/p>\n\n

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No way winter rest: a doe flees through the deep snow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To survive the snowy and cold winters, the deer is physiologically adapted in an incredible way. In concrete terms, this means saving energy at all levels: \nThe deer can actually reduce the blood flow in their extremities. The body temperature there drops sharply for up to 9 hours. This allows the animals to save about 17% of their energy and still stay nice and warm in their core. The disadvantage of this “saving measure”: Sudden sprints become difficult. To escape, the entire metabolism has to be ramped up again from this winter torpor. This costs the emaciated red deer a lot of valuable energy. Disturbances by humans in the winter habitat of wild animals can therefore be fatal in the truest sense of the word.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n