Hibernation is a vernacular reaction to cold weather across much of the animal land , but humanity and our nearest primate relations never mastered it . Except one , the fat - dog nanus lemur ( Cheirogaleus medius)does hibernate in the natural state . However , once in zoostheyhave take over a wintertime lifestyle much like the relief of us , jam study . Now for the first time in captivity , research worker at Duke Lemur Center have carry some of them to shut out their bodies down for winter , much as they do at home .
Humans aside , primates be given to be creatures of the tropics . OnlyJapanese macaqueshave established themselves in place where it is cold enough for frequent snows , making for lilliputian evolutionary pressure to recrudesce hibernation . The reverse possibility – that some innate incapacity to hibernate go on primate tropical – was rebut bythe discoveryfat - tail dwarf lemurs shut down for 3 - 7 months each winter . Pygmy wearisome lorises have also beenreported to hole up , but for less than three days , which give their normal abhorrence of moving , who can secern .
Like all lemurs , C. mediuslives in Madagascar , which never gets moth-eaten enough to make hibernation necessary . However , Madagascan wintertime are quite teetotal , and food is scarce , so it seems one mintage resolve to sleep until the bounty comes again .
However , in zoological garden environments fat - chase after dwarf lemurs have rest active yr - round ; their capacity to hole up was n’t discovered until 2004.Dr Marina Blancowanted to teach more about this unique primate demeanor , and whether it could offer up any clues to safely putting humans on pause too . To really study hierarch hibernation Blanco needed to get captive lemur to join in .
InScientific Reports , Blanco has described how colleagues at the Duke Lemur Center built fake tree hollows for the lemurs exchangeable to those they use in the wild . temperature in the lemur enclosure were then lour from 25ºC ( 77ºF ) to 10 - 15ºC ( 50 - 59ºF ) , wintery by Madagascan standards . The years never get very short in Madagascar either , but the enclosing lights were gradually shift from being on for half the day to 9.5 hours .
The centre ’s lemurs had spent at least four generations not hole up , and were in the wrong cerebral hemisphere anyway . Nevertheless , " They did not disappoint , " Blanco said in astatement . " Indeed , our gnome lemurs hibernated just like their raving mad kin do in western Madagascar . ” Eight lemur spent 70 percentage of their “ winter ” in inscrutable listlessness , even when intellectual nourishment was available . “ Hibernation is literally in their desoxyribonucleic acid , ” Blanco add . Unlike other hibernators , however , their body temperature fluctuated with ambient conditions .
The lemurs lost 22 - 35 percent of their bodyweight , mostly from entrepot in their notable fat tail assembly , but this was far less than if they had stayed alert but found little solid food .
Besides the privilege of working with such adorable subjects , Blanco hopes her workplace could essay transferable to humans . The fact fat - tailed gnome lemurs have remarkably long lives for mammals of their size – up to 29 yr – suggests there must be something to this hibernation matter .
The capacity to exclude one ’s body down for a clock time could have many usesif humans can simulate it . Science fiction writers have long proposed suspended animation , to reach the wizard , which is really just hibernation take to extremes . retrieval from surgical process and certain medical condition might be better if people could just catch some Z’s through the body ’s renovation , while torpor might provide those waiting for a replacing organ to survive postponement .
