Many animals spend the winter in a sleeplike state called hibernation. Several species of bats hibernate in caves. Scientists discovered that a bat species in Japan spends the winter burrowed in mini “igloos” in the snow. These bats join polar bears as the only two mammals known to hibernate in snow!
During warmer months, the Ussurian tube-nosed bat can be found in dead tree leaves or tree holes. Until now, scientists didn’t know where the bats spent the winter.
Hirofumi Hirakawa, a wildlife biologist, was on the team that made the discovery. “Nobody expected this,” he says.