Hibernation Riddles: 30 Riddles About Animals in Winter

I’m a long, deep winter rest. An animal’s body slows way down: its heartbeat, its breathing, even its temperature. It wakes up when spring comes. What am I?

I’m a hidden, sheltered home where a bear spends the winter. I might be a cave, a hollow log or a hole dug under tree roots. What am I?

I stay awake all winter, but in fall I bury hundreds of acorns and nuts all over the yard. I don’t find all of them, and some grow into trees! What am I?

I’m a long journey that some animals make every year, flying, swimming or walking to a warmer place for winter, then coming back in spring. What am I called?

We honk as we fly south in a big V shape across the autumn sky. Taking turns at the front of the V helps us save energy. What are we?

Before winter, a bear eats and eats, sometimes for most of the day. It’s building up something under its skin that will keep it alive while it sleeps. What is it?

I’m a chubby burrowing animal, and I sleep deep underground all winter. Every February 2, people watch to see whether I see my shadow. What am I?

I’m the only mammal that can truly fly. In winter, many of us hang upside down in caves, folded up in our wings, and hibernate. What am I?

I stay awake all winter inside my home of sticks and mud. Before the pond freezes, I store branches underwater, and I swim out under the ice to nibble them. What am I?

I’m the season that sleepy animals wait for. When I arrive, days get longer, snow melts and food starts growing again. What am I?

I’m like a short version of hibernation. An animal’s body cools and slows down for a few hours or days, then it wakes up and gets moving again. What am I called?

I’m a small striped animal who sleeps in a burrow all winter, but I’m not a deep sleeper. Every few days I wake up and snack on the seeds I stored in my underground pantry. What am I?

I’m a tiny golden mouse-like animal with big black eyes and a fluffy tail. I curl up in a nest and can hibernate for half of the year. What am I?

I’m small and spiny. When it gets cold, I build a nest of leaves under a hedge or a woodpile and hibernate until spring. What am I?

I’m an orange and black butterfly. Every fall, millions of us fly south, some up to about 3,000 miles, to spend the winter in the mountain forests of Mexico. What am I?

I’m the word for the winter slowdown of snakes, turtles and lizards. These cold-blooded animals hide away and barely move until it warms up again. What am I called?

I spend the winter at the bottom of a frozen pond. I can’t come up to breathe, so I take in some oxygen from the water through my skin. What am I?

I stay awake all winter, and I hide in plain sight: my brown summer fur turns white when the snow comes. My big furry feet keep me from sinking. What am I?

We don’t sleep through winter. We pack into a tight ball inside our hive and shiver our flight muscles to make heat, keeping our queen warm until spring. What are we?

I’m one of the smallest birds in the world. My heart beats so fast that I could run out of energy overnight, so on cold nights my body slows into torpor, and I wake up each morning. What am I?

In winter, much of the water in my body turns to ice. My heart stops beating and I stop breathing. In spring, I thaw out, my heart starts again, and I hop away. What am I?

Scientists argue about whether I’m a “true” hibernator, because my body temperature drops only a few degrees and I can wake up quickly. But I can go months without eating, drinking, peeing or pooping. What am I?

In some places in Canada, tens of thousands of us snakes spend the winter together in the same underground dens, then pour out in a giant wriggling crowd in spring. What kind of snake are we?

I’m a seabird that flies from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back every year. I see more daylight than any other animal, and I have the longest migration on Earth. What am I?

I’m the special name for the place an animal hibernates, whether it’s a cave full of bats, a hedgehog’s leaf nest or a pile of snakes in a den. What am I called?

When a hibernating bat or squirrel needs to wake up, it burns a special kind of body fat that makes heat quickly, like a built-in heater. What color is that fat?

A groundhog’s heart beats about 80 times a minute in summer. In deep hibernation it slows to just a handful of beats a minute. What part of the body are we measuring?

I’m a deer with big antlers, and I don’t hibernate. Instead, my herds walk huge distances between summer and winter grounds, some of the longest journeys of any land animal. In Europe, people call me a reindeer. What am I called in North America?

We’re small red beetles with black spots. In fall, hundreds or even thousands of us crowd together in a sheltered spot and wait out the winter in a big group. What are we?

Mice and voles stay awake all winter. To stay warm and hidden, they tunnel through a secret space where the air is warmer than outside. Where is it?