hibernaculum

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The Word of the Day for November 29 is:

hibernaculum   \hy-ber-NACK-yuh-lum\   noun
     : a shelter occupied during the winter by a dormant animal 

Example sentence:
     It is late November and the snake hunter is in search of a 
hibernaculum in which hundreds of venomous adders may be bedded 
down for the winter.

Did you know?
     If you're afraid of snakes or bats, you probably won't 
enjoy thinking about a hibernaculum where hundreds, even 
thousands, of these creatures might be passing the wintry 
months. Less frightening creatures also use hibernacula, though 
many of these tend to be a bit inconspicuous. The burrow of a 
woodchuck is a hibernaculum, for instance, as is a cozy 
caterpillar cocoon attached to a wintry twig, or the spot in 
which a frog has buried itself under a log. Hibernacula are all 
around us and have been around for a long, long, long time, but 
we have only called them such since 1789. "Hibernate" didn't 
come into being until the beginning of the 19th century. Both 
words come from Latin "hibernare," meaning "to pass the winter."