Whether meeting a snake in person or virtually via Zoom, "ectothermic" seems like a complicated word to drop in a snake program for second graders. But I still like to explain it because the more common term "cold-blooded" is misleading: snakes are not always cold.
Mammals like us are endothermic - we spend a lot of energy maintaining a relatively high body temperature. An ectothermic animal, on the other hand, does not produce their own body heat. Instead, their body temperature fluctuates with their environment.
In January, Wisconsin snakes would certainly have cold blood. With no way to keep warm, snakes tuck themselves away in a protected burrow to avoid freezing solid. Their metabolism slows down as they enter a hibernation-like state.
Temperatures begin to increase in the spring and warm their body temperature. Once warm enough to move around, they can emerge to bask in the sun to gather more heat. Later in the peak of summer they might seek out a damp rock cave to cool off.
When Emory the rat snake needed another warm water bath this week, I pulled out the infrared temperature sensor for an experiment. Emory was tucked under her favorite rock cave in her habitat with a body temperature reading of 74°F. I prepared her shallow bath with warm water at 83°F. Within just a few minutes, Emory's body temperature had warmed by 8°. With a 1° difference between body temperature and the water temperature, Emory illustrated just how reliant snakes are on their environment. We carefully monitor their habitat temperatures and provide a gradient so the snakes can find a place to warm up or cool down depending on their needs.
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