Animals and birds living in amazing harmony with nature
They make a house among the leaves and live there. Many even enter the mud and make it their home. Instead of migrating, some animals prepare to deal with the frost. The snow rabbit is covered with a thick coat of wool. Warm fur and wool grow on the body. Arrangement of food in winter is a serious challenge. Squirrels, rats, weavers, etc. start making arrangements for it even before winter. To live, they use tree hollows, underground burrows, rocky caves, and leaf nests as homes. Rats have even been seen making tunnels under the snow. Squirrels, rats, etc. have been seen huddling together to stay warm.
The frost has started increasing, the days are getting shorter, the leaves of the trees are changing color and the dry leaves have started falling. The winter season has arrived. Snow has started falling on the high peaks of the Himalayas and the hills are about to be covered with a white blanket of snow. A large part of the country has started getting caught in the bone-chilling cold wave. In the high snow regions, the temperature can even go below the freezing point, where survival from this frost becomes the first task. A resourceful person makes arrangements for everything from food to warm clothes and a comfortable house, but it is no less interesting to know how innocent animals deal with them. Besides, we can also learn a lot from their wisdom in dealing with adverse situations.
Some animals and birds migrate to relatively less cold areas as soon as winter arrives. This is called migration. For this, they have to travel thousands of miles long. They usually work in groups, dealing with all kinds of dangers. The arrival of Siberian birds in many areas of India remains in the headlines of newspapers every year. Birds found in the North Pole fly straight to the South Pole with the onset of Arctic autumn and return home with the arrival of spring. Whales and some other fish also migrate south in search of food or move toward the surface of relatively warm water in the deep ocean. The evolution of Monarch butterflies found in North America and Canada is no less interesting. This tiny butterfly, an example of amazing courage, travels thousands of miles from North America to Mexico.
Water also proves to be a good shelter for many aquatic animals in winter. They move towards the bottom of the lake or pond as they move towards the surface accumulation point. Frogs, turtles and many fishes there, stones, logs. Some creatures are not able to adopt the above-mentioned methods. They deal with this difficult situation very well by wearing the armor of sleep. His style is unique in itself. This is known as hibernation. This is a state of very deep sleep. These creatures spend many winter months lying in a deep sleep-like state in their dens, cavities, and caves, without moving. Bears, squirrels, bats, baboons, etc. like this spend their winter. Elephants and other reptiles also spend their time in burrows in an inactive state, which is like hibernation. In this, body temperature decreases, and the heart rate and breathing process slow down. In this way, the metabolic process of the body remains slow. Therefore, this is the state of minimum energy dissipation. During deep hibernation, the body temperature falls below the ambient temperature. The heart rate decreases so much that the organism appears almost dead. He remains in this state for months. It takes a long time for animals to recover from this condition.
Some living beings remain in normal winter sleep, whose temperature goes down a bit, and when needed, They become active again and then go into hibernation again. The bear similarly spends the winter. Its temperature drops significantly and so does the heart rate. Body temperature has been seen to decrease from 37 to 31 degrees centigrade. It goes into temporary sleep and wakes up in between to move around. In this state, the mother also gives birth to children.
In this way, the wild animal that overcomes the harsh winters with the help of hibernation reflects nature’s innate intelligence and inherent courage. These creatures face winter with full preparation. As soon as they sense cold coming, they collect as much fat as possible in the body, which is consumed as necessary energy during winter sleep.
Given the technique of staying alive in hibernation without eating or drinking anything, today scientists are also doing research on artificial hibernation so that it can be used in an emergency. Seriously injured scientists are considering using it for prevention before treatment is available to patients and for astronauts during long journeys.
This state of winter sleep is somewhat similar to samadhi. However, the state of Samadhi is attainable by rigorous yoga practice. Based on this, yogis have been living in caves for months in the same posture without eating or drinking anything. It has also been proven through scientific experiments that in this state their heart and breathing speed stops. The metabolic process becomes very slow. The body temperature comes down and brain activities become almost inactive. Energy loss from the body is minimal. It can be considered synonymous with conscious hibernation. Whatever it may be, the world of animals is unique. Despite not being as resourceful and intelligent as humans, nature has given them such wisdom that they can deal with such terrible colds very well. It would not be wrong to call those who resort to hibernation as yogis of the animal world, because their state is no less than samadhi in many respects.
