hibernaculum meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

hibernaculum

noun

UK /haɪ.bəˈnak.juː.ləm/ · US /ˌhaɪ.bəɹˈnæk.jə.ləm/

Etymology Borrowed from Latin hībernāculum (“winter quarters”).

Biology, Natural sciences, Zoology The place where a hibernating animal shelters for the winter.

Aeolus Cave, which is set into a wooded hillside in Dorset, Vermont, is believed to be the largest bat hibernaculum in New England; it is estimated that before white-nose hit, nearly three hundred thousand bats—some from as far away as Ontario and Rhode Island—came there to spend the winter.2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, chapter 10, in The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Henry Holt and Company:
In winter, NLEBs use caves and mines as hibernacula.⁹⁴ Suitable habitat for the NLEB is present within the Proposed Route.2024 August 19, “LAKETOWN 115-kV TRANSMISSION LINE PROJECT IN CARVER COUNTY, MN”, in Great River Energy, page 98:

Biology, Botany, Natural sciences A bud, case, or protective covering that a plant uses to survive the challenging environmental conditions during a dormancy period.

Related terms: hibernacle, turion