David points out that a turtle tucked away for the winter may not be hibernating in the mammalian sense: reptiles are often said to brumate. The distinction is not universally insisted on, but brumation usually refers to a reptile’s winter dormancy, during which it may rouse enough to drink water. The verb is related to brumal, a fine English adjective meaning wintry, as in brumal weather. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Turtles “Hibernate” or “Brumate” Through Winter”
You may remember a few episodes I was talking about my friend Carol who has a turtle that she just puts away in her closet for the winter because the turtle hibernates.
Yes, I remember.
Well, we heard from David Beiswinger who said, Martha, you said you had a friend whose turtle hibernates.
Don’t reptiles brumate?
Brumate?
Yes.
How do you spell that?
B-R-U-M-A-T-E.
And what is that?
Well, it’s the way that reptiles hibernate, which apparently is a little bit different from the way mammals hibernate. For example, they wake up and drink water.
I mean, it’s a slightly different way, but I looked online and there’s actually some controversy about whether one should specify brumate. But the point is that there’s a wonderful word for wintry, which is brumal in English. B-R-U-M-A-L.
So brumate means basically to hibernate during the winter?
Yeah, they’re very, very, very similar.
That’s pretty cool.
So not quite as knocked out as, say, a frog that has immersed itself in the mud all winter.
Yes, or frozen. You know those wood frogs that freeze all winter?
But anyway, if you’re tired of talking about wintry weather, you can also talk about brumal weather.
The weather will still be there, though.
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