Hibernation has received considerable attention from physiologists and natural historians, but theoretical and ecological treatments of hibernation are rarer. There is ample recent evidence that costs associated with hibernation affect the degree to which hibernation is expressed in nature, but we currently lack a quantitative framework under which to make predictions about how the costs and benefits of hibernation interact under various environmental conditions. Here, we attempt the first steps towards building an optimal hibernation theory for making specific predictions about the expression of hibernation (i.e. the depth and duration of torpor bouts), metabolic functioning, and the total period of hibernation in mammals and birds. Our current understanding of the costs associated with hibernation do not allow for parameterisation of optimal hibernation theory, but we hope this work provides a roadmap for physiologists and ecologists to collect the necessary data in the future.

中文翻译：

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最佳冬眠理论

冬眠受到生理学家和自然历史学家的极大关注，但对冬眠的理论和生态治疗却很少见。最近有大量证据表明，与冬眠相关的成本会影响冬眠在自然界中的表达程度，但我们目前缺乏一个量化框架来预测冬眠的成本和收益在各种环境条件下如何相互作用。在这里，我们尝试了建立最佳冬眠理论的第一步，以对冬眠的表达（即麻木发作的深度和持续时间）、代谢功能以及哺乳动物和鸟类的总冬眠时间进行具体预测。