Brumation Escapee

Earlier this month I had the special opportunity to give a seminar for the department where I graduated. The University of Arizona’s School of Natural Resources and the Environment. I focused on the importance of inclusive internships, how they’ve impacted my life, and how I designed one for the Los Angeles Zoo.

While on campus, I needed a quiet place to practice my presentation so I headed over to my old lab. And of course even though it was December, I was looking for lizards and I spotted this ornate tree lizard. If the temperature is warm enough and the lizard is hungry enough, they will emerge from brumation.

Reptiles like snakes, turtles, and lizards go into brumation. During brumation, reptiles, often in groups, burrow underground or find a crevice or den. They go deep enough that the temperature stabilizes. This is important as they cannot regulate their own temperature and metabolisms. This process is similar to hibernation however, animals that hibernate often reduce their body temperatures and metabolism. They can hibernate for weeks or months at a time and cannot wake up at random like brumating animals.

There is also a third way that animals conserve metabolic energy called torpor. On cold nights Hummingbirds often go into torpor which reduces their temperature, metabolism, and heart rate. Torpor is more short term lasting from a night to weeks.

Can you #FindThatLizard that took a break from brumation?