This exhibit examines how animals stay warm when it gets very, very cold. Research into hibernation and other winter survival strategies helps us improve medical treatments.

• What does hibernation mean?
• Who can survive the coldest temperatures?
• How can water stay liquid below freezing?
• Did dinosaurs hibernate? Do Interior Alaska bats?

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"There's a huge creativity component in science. To do something new, you have to be innovative." 
Brian Barnes

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We study black bears. We had a suspicion metabolism was decreased in hibernating bears, but it's much more than we thought. 
Oivind Toien

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Hibernation and the Science of Cold was created in partnership with Guest Curator Brian Barnes and the researchers at the Institute of Arctic Biology at UAF.

All photos: Oivind Toien, IAB

Cope * Hibernate * Freeze * Leave

Find out what these choices mean.
Learn the advantages.
Discover the consequences.

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Nobody knows exactly why ground squirrels have to arouse during torpor. That is the big question in the hibernation community.
Franziska Kohl

 

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Seek the Survivors

Even though they must tolerate low temperatures in the extreme, the creatures of the far north are all around you in the wintertime.

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Watch the trailer.