Snakes live in a wide variety of habitats, they can live in nearly every environment. They also have some in build features to confront the cold environment and this is a cool thing, some people call it hibernation which is a state of deep sleep but snakes are the animals who cannot do hibernation! and So many snake caretaker see the snake in the winter resting, so they think that the snake is in hibernation though it is not fully true and here is why.
What is hibernation? Why snakes are not doing hibernation? These are the questions we are going to see in-depth. So the hibernation is a state in which animal go into deep sleep for few months. Most people are aware of hibernation. During the winter mammals and other animals use this state to save their energy, because the food is not available easily. So the animals use deep sleep in which they do not need to eat or drink for weeks or few months. Because they use a body mechanism in which they reduce their heart rate and save energy. And they eat more food before the winter and store fat as much as they could.
But snakes do not go into hibernation but they get into Brumation. So what is brumation and what are the differences let’s talk about it. Well, the brumation is not the true hibernation but similar to it. During the winter snakes and some lizards go into brumation in which they become slow and stay in one place without moving. The metabolism and heart rate goes down, not because they want to save energy but their body become slow because of cold weather but in hibernation, the energy is used from fat and mammals do not eat or drink on the other hand snake or lizard do not eat but they need to drink, they go for water and come back to the same state. They use glycogen as energy instead of fat because fat is very important for their eggs. Mammals use their inner heat to stand shivering on the other hand snakes and lizards are cold-blooded animals that cannot regulate their body temperature. Their body temperature goes down with the weather. Mammals go for hibernation because they have to. Snakes and lizards go to brumation because the cold weather makes them do it if the weather becomes warm for a little time in the mid of winter they wake up but hibernating animals will not wake until the time is right.
So this is the reason snakes do not hibernate but go for brumation. For other interesting facts stay tuned.
