If they didn’t do that the lactic acid build-up would be too big, and they wouldn’t be able to wake up from hibernation at all. To neutralize the lactic acid turtles use magnesium and calcium that they’ve stored in their shells. Lactic acid is the same thing that gives us muscle soreness, so you can imagine how unpleasant it can be for the turtle to wake up after a long sleep with muscle cramps all over the body. One of the bad things that happen is that they have a hard time getting rid of the lactic acid that accumulates. But reducing the metabolic rate can also have some unpleasant side effects. Turtles are able to do all those amazing things because they reduce their metabolic rate. So the fact that they are cold-blooded has its advantages and disadvantages when it comes to hibernation. This also means that they have to be very careful with the place where choose to hibernate. The fact that turtles don’t need to generate heat to warm their bodies is also very helpful for them because, unlike mammals that hibernate, turtles don’t need to use energy to warm their bodies. The amount of time they can do those things varies from species to species, the numbers that I gave you are just some averages. They can also survive for 5 to 8 months without any food or water. This should give you an idea of how much they slow down during hibernation.Īs a result of this slow down they will need considerably less oxygen, sometimes due to unfortunate situations turtles don’t have access to oxygen at all, but because they are hibernating they are able to live without oxygen for up to 5 months. In general, the heart of a turtle beats between 40 and 45 times per minute, when they hibernate they will slow down to around 10 beats per minute. And as a result, their hearts will start to slow down, along with all other processes that happen in their bodies. When the weather starts to get cold the metabolism of a turtle will automatically start to slow down. So turtles will observe very easily subtle changes in the temperature. Cold-blooded animals are not able to generate body heat and they rely on the surrounding temperature to heat their body. And this means that they are cold-blooded animals. Unlike most animals that hibernate, turtles are reptiles. So let’s move on to turtles and see how they do it. While this explanation covers the basic facts it doesn’t explain how it actually happens, and it doesn’t cover the different things that only certain species can do. That is the basic explication of what hibernation means. When they are in this state, they will reduce their metabolic rate, which means that they will use less energy, they won’t require any food or water, and they will sleep the whole time. Hibernation is a state in which some mammals and reptiles will enter during cold periods. During hibernation turtles do a lot of interesting things that no other animals can do, so let’s take a closer look at how turtles hibernate, and what makes them so different from other animals.įirst, let’s see what hibernation actually means. While other turtles will hibernate during the summer. When hibernating, aquatic turtles gain some new abilities like breathing underwater. Most animals will just simply sleep when they hibernate, but turtles do things a little differently. And most land turtles will dig holes where they will hibernate. Most aquatic turtle species will hibernate at the bottom of a lake, or in a similar place. But now that it’s starting to get colder it’s impossible to find any turtle in that area, and this made me wonder do turtles hibernate? So I decided to do some research on this subject, here is what I found out.ĭo turtles hibernate? Yes, turtles do hibernate during the winter. There is a lake close to where I live, and it’s usually filled with turtles during the summer months.
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