hibernaculum

plural hibernacula

1. biologyThe place where a hibernating animal shelters for the winter.

   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

   1 more example

   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

2. biologyA bud, case, or protective covering that a plant uses to survive the challenging environmental conditions during a dormancy period.