Why The Snake Need The Hibernation

Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with many more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads with their highly mobile jaws. To accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in front of the other instead of side by side, and most have only one functional lung. Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca.

Hibernation is the animal to winter dormancy, it is a kind of active process. Although animals in the winter temperature and environmental temperature during the close, especially variable temperature animals, but when it meets the appropriate stimulation or by their own rhythms to awakening period, its body temperature can rise in the short term to restore normal body temperature. Animals in the winter, the midterm, breathing and heartbeat frequency, breathing oxygen consumption are greatly reduced. Dormancy animal the physiological function mainly by the change the nerve center control. In the endocrine glands are withheld all stop activities, various metabolic level lower generally. But to awakening, the physiological activities of the various organs according to the order quickly returned to normal, the process to use a lot of energy. After the whole hibernate period, hibernating animal will significantly reduce weight.
The snake is a variable temperature animals. It is often as the temperature of the four seasons of temperature changes, the body's metabolic rate and activities also and temperature changes is closely linked. Temperature is high, metabolic rate is high, frequent activity; Low temperature, metabolic rate is low, and the activity weakens. Generally speaking, from the late spring to early winter, it is golden season snakes activities, particularly in the scorching summer and the days of high gas cool autumn, snakes activity most active, often on everywhere, night and day, looking for food, common saying says "the eight hang nine tie up seven tree", image illustrate, 7, 8, 9 this three months is the peak of the snakes activities. But the snails like hot also have certain limits, especially in the summer heat, they like in the shade, grass and the cool places such as the habitat. From the fall in winter, with the temperature gradually declined, snake metabolic decreases, when its physiological activities slowed to a certain level, gradually into "hibernate" period. General snake from late November has already begun to don't eat not to drink, not exuvial, successively into the holes hibernate, then they are often dozens or even hundreds of article in the GaoSao clustered in the article in a cave or hollow tree dormant for the winter. For the following to warm spring, the ice snow melt away, just from a state of dormant wake up, and to start a new life. One hole to hibernate period from about three months time, the main form of fat storage depend on in the body nutrition materials to slow added to maintain its minimum life nutrition material.
The skin of a snake is covered in scales. Contrary to the popular notion of snakes being slimy because of possible confusion of snakes with worms, snakeskin has a smooth, dry texture. Most snakes use specialized belly scales to travel, gripping surfaces. The body scales may be smooth, keeled, or granular. The eyelids of a snake are transparent "spectacle" scales, which remain permanently closed, also known as brille