semi-hibernation

plural semi-hibernations

1. biologyA state of reduced power consumption, and metabolic activity in animals during winter, but to a lesser degree than true hibernation.

   They are fed exclusively on insects which are caught on the wing by the parents; if there is a spell of bad weather the parents cannot collect their insects, the young swifts starve, lose their temperature regulation and go into a sort of semi-hibernation at a very low body temperature.

   2009 September 23, G. E. W. Wolstenholme, Maeve O'Connor, editors, The Nature of Sleep, Wiley, page 321

   1 more example

   Should a warm day soon follow this untoward excitement, the after effects are to a certain extent modified, as a good cleansing flight can be taken; but when the cold still continues, the bees never again being able to regain their former state of semi-hibernation, drag out their existence wandering aimlessly about, and die at a rapid rate each day adding to the accumulating filth of the hive.

   1914, Samuel Simmins, A Modern Bee-farm and Its Economic Management, page 111