Answer: Estivation

When you think of animal dormancy, you most likely think of the best known kind of animal dormancy: hibernation. Every year many different species of creatures, mammals in particular, slumber through the winter in a state of inactivity and lowered metabolic function known as hibernation.

Just as some creatures hibernate to avoid the food-scarcity and extreme weather that comes with the depths of bitter cold winter, there are other creatures that do the very same to avoid extreme heat, dryness, and summer weather.

While estivation is most common among reptiles and amphibians (North American salamanders, for example, and the Western swamp turtle both estivate), there are some rare mammals that do so. The Malagasy fat-tailed dwarf lemur spends seven months a year riding out the heat by lounging in a comfy tree hole.