Animals hibernating this winter

If you’ve been out and about in the last few weeks, you might have noticed some frantic activity in the undergrowth.

With just a week or two till the clocks go back, it’s the time of year when Britain’s squirrels, hedgehogs and door mice prepare for the long winter ahead and hibernation. When the frosts are hard and food is scarce, sleeping the days away is the best way to conserve energy.

Well, we say ‘sleeping’, but that’s a bit misleading. "It’s a bio-chemical process," says naturalist Mike Pratt, chief executive of Northumberland Wildlife Trust. "It’s the metabolism of their bodies retracting into a core, switching unnecessary systems off, and keeping essential elements going only at the lowest level."

But for some of our animals, hibernating patterns are changing. "Our overall impression is that global warming is having an effect," says Pratt. "We are noticing that animals are emerging earlier or sometimes not hibernating at all.

"It’s common now to see hedgehogs walking round in February. That used to be a rare occurrence."

Begin our look below at some of the animals who will be starting to hibernate over the next month or two, what that hibernation involves and why in some cases global warming is threatening their long winter sleep.