Torpor is characterized by a sharp decrease in metabolic rate and body temperature for several hours. This low-energy state is like hibernation but occurs over much shorter periods of hours rather ...

To buffer against these challenges, hummingbirds use a process called torpor, a sort of overnight hibernation. In new research published this week, Shayne R. Halter, a Ph.D. candidate at The ...

To make it there, hummingbirds sometimes enter a short-term hibernation of sorts ... But rather than killing them, the process known as torpor allows the tiny hummingbirds to conserve enough ...

Some species of ground squirrels spend the winter in hibernation. Although chipmunks don’t truly hibernate, they do enter a state known as torpor. During the fall, they pack their cheeks with acorns ...

Torpor differs from true hibernation in that it allows bears to wake intermittently, seek food, or even change dens if necessary, explained Van Hoose. “This bear, though, should have been in ...

During hibernation season, sleeping animals do not eat or drink anything. They enter a state of “torpor,” where the body shuts down almost entirely. “Torpor is not sleep,” Rafael Dai Pra GRD ’25, a ...

Last month the young bear, likely older than a cub but not yet fully mature, was seen foraging for food in the town of Niwot in Boulder County, Colorado instead of entering its usual state of torpor - ...