REAL FASTERS

Evening Star, Issue 17543, 24 December 1920, Page 10

REAL FASTERS

All feats of mankind in the way of tasting fado to insignificance compared with the prolonged abstinence which is the yearly lot of many of the lower creatures, writes Christopher Beck in the'Dailv Mail.' In this country we have five regular hibornators, namely—the bat, badger, squirrel, and dormouse. The bat has already turned in for a sleeping fast of perhaps 150 days, the rest are getting .ready tor it—that is, they are eating all they can in order to lay on a good coat of fat on winch they can live during the long niontlis of cold and torpor. Of >.ho five the squirrel is the least regular in its habits, for a mild soell, even in January, will rouse the beautiful little bngnt-eyed creature and bring it out into the winter sunshine to scamper among the evergreens and search out one of its hoards ot nuts or acorns which it has stored against such an emergency. The badger, too, may rouse at intervals; but the dainty dormouse and the prickly hedgehog rarely stir during the winter. Th 9 dormous is curled tight in an exquisite little nest among the dead grasses at the bottom of a hedgeiow, while the prickly hedgehog has its lair deep among the dead leaves.

Further North wo can find animals which fast for even longer periods than any inhabitants of th'3se temperate .islands. Take, for instance, the bears. The grizzly of the great North-West retires to its lair about the beginning of November, and will there sleep and fa=t for nearly half the year. Grizzlies are found right up into Northern Alaska, where the winter lasts for more than sis months. Consequently an Alaskan grizzly may fast for 180 days on end, and —more „ wonderful still —it is during this period of ahstintce that the she-bear produces and suckles her young.