Asian badger: Lose six pounds in one sleep, how many people envy it?

"During the Jingzhe period, the Yang energy rises, the temperature warms up, spring thunder rumbles, the rain increases, and all things are full of vitality. In Hongshan, who has already woken up early with this spring rain during the Jingzhe period?"

Do you remember the "猹" mentioned by Mr. Lu Xun in "Young Runtu"? That is the Asian badger. Although badgers look fat, they are very agile and are agile fat guys. They have very long claws on their front limbs and are good at digging holes. They have average eyesight but a very sensitive sense of smell. With their flexible and powerful forelimbs, they often search the soil for insects, amphibians, reptiles and mollusks for food.

In the native area of ​​Hongshan, there lives a badger named Shengsheng. He is loved by everyone for his round body and lively personality.

【 Prepare for bed in advance】

Badgers are semi-hibernating animals, and they store fat in advance to prepare for the cold winter. In our native area, keepers start to help the animals "put on weight" in the fall. In addition to the fruits and vegetables provided on a daily basis, keepers will add chestnuts, sweet potatoes, corn and other foods. These foods are rich in carbohydrates and can ensure the quality of the animals' autumn fat. In November, the animals will begin to hibernate.

This sleep does not last until the next year. Shengsheng will occasionally wake up throughout the winter. In previous years, Shengsheng would sleep for more than ten days. This year, Shengsheng slept for more than twenty days at most. However, the breeder said that this is normal. After waking up from a nap, we will patrol the outdoor playground and then go back to sleep.

When Shengsheng is sleeping soundly, the keeper will reduce disturbing him and will not enter his outdoor playground throughout the winter. In the intervals between Shengsheng's sleep, the keeper will feed him a small amount of insects, and Shengsheng will choose whether to eat according to his own needs.

In February of this year, our badgers began to wake up from hibernation ~ But the time when badgers wake up completely is not fixed. In Nanjing, there was a freezing rain after work resumed after the New Year. During that time, the badgers returned to their nests at the speed of light and didn't want to go out at all.

[Sleeping can also help you lose weight]

Some people say that drinking water can make you gain weight, but Shengsheng said that he can lose weight even when sleeping. When badgers hibernate, they slowly consume their stored fat. According to the breeder, Shengsheng weighed 13.6 kg before hibernation, and 10.3 kg after waking up from hibernation. This sleep has completely eliminated the fat he had put on in autumn.

Our keepers also adjust his food formula according to his needs, adding carbohydrate-containing food in the fall, and after he wakes up in the spring, they slowly increase his food intake based on his foraging conditions. Now he has returned to the amount he ate before he gained weight.

Shengsheng's waking up is a slow process. The keepers observed that when he first came out of the cave, he would choose a time period when the temperature was slightly higher, and gradually he would come out of the cave in the morning. Now Shengsheng has fully woken up, and his activity time has returned to the state before hibernation, and he appears randomly at irregular times every day.

Shengsheng not only patrols his territory, but also uses his sensitive sense of smell to discover delicious food under the soil, sometimes insect larvae, sometimes plant roots and rhizomes, which are Shengsheng's favorites.

Shengsheng: I smell the delicious food

As Shengsheng woke up, the breeder prepared various enrichments for him, and the one that made the editor most envious was the rabbit leg. The breeder put the rabbit leg into a sack and hung the sack on a branch. Shengsheng, who smelled the smell, immediately tried the sack, but because Shengsheng had just woken up from hibernation not long ago, his fat body did not give him many opportunities to try, and finally, Shengsheng gave up.

Shengsheng: When I finish losing weight, I can do whatever I want with my little rabbit legs

Breeder: Let’s try the mealworm first.

In addition to the sack blind boxes, there are also bamboo tube meals. The breeder made a hole in the bamboo and stuffed it with sheep grass and the barley worms that Shengsheng loves. Shengsheng was very happy and kept struggling with the bamboo tube and tearing the sheep grass. After a delicious meal, the tired Sheng also rested contentedly~

Everything is full of vitality

A sound of awakening

Many animals have also changed in Hongshan

Wait for you to discover