Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have owned a few snakes and handled a few in the wild(some who didnt want to be handled) but only recently started thinking about this question.

snakes, as reptiles, are cold blooded and depend on the environment to stay warm. how do snakes north of the mason-dixon line do it? i would think that when it is 5-20 below freezing, theyre body would freeze too.

Reptiles that are within the range of freezing weather get below the frost line during hibernation.
Brian

>>i have owned a few snakes and handled a few in the wild(some who didnt want to be handled) but only recently started thinking about this question.
>>
>>snakes, as reptiles, are cold blooded and depend on the environment to stay warm. how do snakes north of the mason-dixon line do it? i would think that when it is 5-20 below freezing, theyre body would freeze too.
-----

RATS
1.0 Corn snake "Warpath"(KY locale)
1.0 Black rat snake "Havok" (KY locale)
1.1 Black rat snakes "Reaper and Mystique" (MO locale)
1.0 Albino Black rat snake "Malakai" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Everglades rat snake "Deadpool" (Dwight Good stock)
0.1 Greenish rat snake "Rogue" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Great plains rat snake "Reign Fire" (TX locale)
1.0 Grey rat snake "Punisher" (White oak phase)(Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Yellow rat snake "Wolverine" (Dwight Good stock)

Good luck and Happy Herping
Brian

now that you explain it it seems very obvious. thanks

They use the resources around them. The ground is a great resource to be utilized.

The ground absorbs heat all Summer and slowly releases heat all Winter. Below the surface, at a certain depth that may differ from region to region due to climate and soil type, the ground doesn't freeze. It may even stay at temps that are warmer than one would think.

Also, certain geographic features may retain heat better through Winter. Snakes can figure this out.

In deserts during the hottest days that would kill any snake, underground retreats can be found that are at temps in the 60's. Depends on the geography, angle to the Sun, direction, etc. Snakes know this better than the people that keep them.

Snakes use their environment just as other animals use it. Maybe in different ways, but they use it to get what they need.

I know that if you dig a hole deep enough in MI (more than 6 or 10 feet at least) the soil will be around 50 degrees anytime. Summer or winter.

Kind of off topic, but I read that American toads can completely freeze and thaw without a problem. They have something in their blood that prevents it from crystalizing when it freezes. Ice crystals would otherwise cause lots of damaage to the body tissues.

In trying to switch my Eastern Hognose from toads to mice, I would first switch them to f/t toads (to get them use to a non moving prey item). Stick a toad in a freezer over night, thaw it the next day, it is a dead toad. You can stick them in a refrigirator for a couple of days, and they stay alive though. Please don't anybody yell at me, I was trying to switch them over so I would not have mess with the frogs anymore.
-----
Jenea

1:1 Tricolor Hognose
0:0:2 Florida Redbelly Snakes
0:1 Gulf Coast Box Turtle
1:1 Red-eared Slider
0:0:1 Green Tree Frog
1:2:2 Mediterranean Geckos
2:0 Cats
1:1 Kids
1:0 Spouse

Perhaps the chemical makeup of the amphibians blood lowers its freezing temperatures so it can survive temperatures lower that than those fatal to other species. Like anything there would be a limit to how low temperatures can get before the toad suffers fatal consequences. All liquids have a freezing temperature, even the toad’s blood. Your freezer may have simply been below that limit.
-----
Randy Hallman
Firehouse Herps

I think you're right.

"Scientists say that, before winter comes, the frogs eat ravenously, storing a starch in their livers. A freeze triggers their bodies to convert the starch into other compounds, most often glucose, or blood sugar. The frogs become, in essence, extremely diabetic.

The glucose lowers the freezing temperature of water inside the frogs' cells, and because of this, the cells stay liquid, even as ice fills the space around them. This is crucial: If the water inside the cells froze, scientists say, the jagged ice crystals would destroy everything inside, killing the frog."

cut and pasted from here:
http://www.frogs.org/news/article.asp?CategoryID=1&InfoResourceID=1974

Might explain why the toads that were put in the freezer "croaked". Maybe they didn't have enough food in them.

>>Like anything there would be a limit to how low temperatures can get before the toad suffers fatal consequences.

In theory at least, this is not quite true. the reason freezing is fatal is the nasty habbit water has of forming crystals that are not only jagged, but take up more space that liquid water, bursting cell walls and fracturing proteins and DNA. If there were a way to make water go through a smooth transition from a liquid to a non-crystaline solid (say by adding some as yet undiscovered impurity), it might be possible for living things to truely freeze and survive. I say "in theory" because this might simply be chemically impossible, but I don't think anyone's proven it yet.

Of course, there's always a chance I might have read some "consumer science" somewhere and this is known to be impossible...

Not sure which it is...I'm sure a quick google check would answer this one...But this IS one amphibian which freezes and thaws and lives. I saw a special on them. They seem to be unique in this ability. Duffy

They increase the amount of glucose stored in the cells, which works as an antifreeze. Although much of the liquid in the frog's body freezes, enough maintains its liquid status that the cell walls do not rupture. BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Duffy