Salamander temperatures

[EifLadida]

At what temperatures will a terrestrial salamander try to hibernate?

 

[Kaysie]

Salamanders don't hibernate. They just become less active in the winter.

 

[EifLadida]

Their metabolism slows, so they don't have to go out in search of food. I thought there was a point where it was considered hibernation, but I suppose not.

 

[mytimemic]

I had a hard time understanding this also. But I recently watched a show on National Geographic on hibernation. Scientists are looking into hibernation for ways to slow or cure what ails us. Anyway, they showed a type of ground squirrel that hibernates. They were handling it during their discussion. It didn't wake up & it's little body was "locked" in it's sleeping position. My point is that when I do housekeeping in Rex's habitat, she wakes up if I disturb her. So she may "sleep" for a couple weeks at a time during the winter but if I go in there now & touch her, she will wake...and expect to be fed.

 

[Jan]

Their metabolism slows, so they don't have to go out in search of food. I thought there was a point where it was considered hibernation, but I suppose not.

Vaious taxa have various strategies to 'overwinter'. Since the mid-1960's, brumation (physiologic changes independent of body temperature) has come to define the way cold-blooded animals overwinter vs. hibernation the term used for warm-blooded animals. Salamanders brumate rather than hibernate. Functions slow down.