Freeze Avoidance in Overwintering Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina) Hatchlings
Table 1. Adapted from Sims et al., 2001.
Photo by Christian Oldham
| Home | Freeze Avoidance in Overwintering Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina) Hatchlings |
| Freeze Avoidance and Freeze Tolerance: An Overview | Hatchlings of some turtle species in North America, including snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina), exhibit behavioral freeze avoidance strategies to successfully overwinter in regions where natal nests may be exposed to lethal low temperatures at northern latitudes (Sims et al., 2001). An investigation into the behavior of hatchling snapping turtles to overwinter in water rather than natal nests demonstrated greater mortality of individuals subjected to hibernation in soil than individuals in water (Sims et al., 2001). The investigators proposed that this differential mortality could have been the result of accumulation of metabolic wastes in body fluids of hatchlings in soil due to the inability of these individuals to uptake adequate amounts of water to dilute wastes (Sims et al., 2001). |
| Supercooling | |
| Freeze Avoidance in Overwintering Blanding's Turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) Hatchlings |
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| Variation in Freeze Tolerance Between Species | |
| Freeze Tolerance in Overwintering Slider (Trachemys scripta) Hatchlings | Table 1. Adapted from Sims et al., 2001. |
| Freeze Tolerance in Overwintering Northern Map Turtle (Graptemys geographica) Hatchlings |
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| Literature Cited | Photo by Christian Oldham |
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| Contact | This website was created as a part of a class project in the Animal Physiology Class at Davidson College |