Are Turtles Cold Or Warm Blooded?

Turtles, different from some reptiles are ectotherms (cold blooded) which means that their internal temperature varies according to their ambient environment. In other words, they are hot when their environment is hot and cold when their environment is cold. In hot environments, cold blooded animals such as the turtle have blood that is much warmer than warm blooded animals. Cold blooded animals are also much more active in warm environments and are very sluggish in cold environments. This is due to the fact that their muscle activity is dependent upon chemical reactions that run quickly when they are hot and slowly when they are cold. Cold blooded creatures can convert much more of its food into body mass compared to warm blooded creatures.

Many warm blooded animals sweat or pant to lose heat by water evaporation and can cool off by moving into a shaded area or getting wet, cold blooded animals such as the turtle often like to bask in the sun to warm up and increase their metabolism. Some may also prefer heat lamps when kept in captivity.

Cold blooded animals require much less energy to survive than warm blooded animals do. Mammals and birds (warm blooded creatures) require much more food and energy than do cold blooded animals of the same weight. This is because in warm blooded animals, heat loss from their bodies is proportional to the surface area of their bodies, while the heat created by their bodies is proportional to the surface area of their bodies; the heat created by their bodies is proportional to their mass.

Furthermore, the ratio of a body’s surface area to its mass is less the larger the animal is. What this means is that larger, warm blooded animals are able to generate more heat than they lose and more easily able to keep their body temperatures stable. This in turn also makes it easier for them to stay warmer by being larger. This also means that if a warm blooded animal is too small it will lose its heat faster than it can produce it. Since cold blooded animals like the turtle do not need to burn as much food to maintain a constant body temperature, they are more energy efficient and can survive longer periods of time without food than warm blooded creatures can. Many cold blooded creatures will try to keep their body temperatures as low as possible when food is scarce.

Cold blooded creatures also have the advantage of being less prone to infections than warm blooded animals. This lies in the fact that being a warm blooded body provides a warm environment for viruses, bacteria and parasites to reside. As a general rule, mammals and birds since they are warm blooded, are usually prone to more problems with infections and such than reptiles, whose constantly changing body temperature make life more difficult for bacteria, etc. to survive in. However turtles are known to carry diseases and suffer from infections quite commonly, so they could be one of the exceptions to this rule.

Mammals when compared to cold blooded animals still typically have a stronger immune system than cold blooded animals such as the turtle. A reptile’s immune system is more efficient when the animal is warmer, however since bacteria are known to most likely grow slower in lower temperatures, reptiles will sometimes lower their body temperatures when they have an infection.