All animals can be divided into three groups: homoyothermal (or warm-blooded), poikilothermal (or cold-blooded), heterothermal.
Warmbloods are humans, mammals, and birds. Due to the high metabolic rate and thermal insulation (for example, due to the presence of wool) they have a constant body temperature, which is minimally affected by climatic changes in the environment.
Heterothermic animals in warm-blooded animals during periods of numbness or hibernation do not have a constant body temperature, in contrast to the period of activity (bears, rodents, bats).
Snakes and other
reptiles (reptiles) along with fish and amphibians
are cold-blooded animals. Their direct activity is influenced by ambient temperature. For example, the body temperature of a snake is 1-2 degrees higher or equal to it. What factors have the greatest impact on this indicator?
Climate belt
In areas located in temperate latitudes, where there is an annual change of seasons, reptiles in a cold period fall into a stupor. The north is the climatic zone, the shorter are the moments of summer activity. This is because it is therefore more difficult to maintain a high body temperature.
The climatic zone of the habitat zone also affects the daily activity of reptiles. In early spring, they are active during the day, in the middle of summer - in the mornings and closer to evening, if we talk about daytime animals.
The body temperature of a snake or lizard is also influenced by weather conditions in a particular season in a specific area. If in the Caucasus or Central Asia in the winter a thaw occurs for several days, then you can meet, for example, the muzzle (his photo is posted in the article). And agamas living in warm human buildings do not fall into a winter stupor at all.
Day and night
The temperature of the body of a snake and lizard has a direct effect on the time of day.
Nocturnal reptiles use the ability of the soil to retain daytime heat. The night hunter, the skink gecko (pictured above), from time to time burrows into the heat-retained sand to remain active. The daytime animal is a long-eared round-headed lizard ; at night it may not return to the hole, but burrow into the sand until morning.
The sun
Infrared radiation (that is, heat transfer without direct contact with the source) of the sun has a huge effect on reptiles. For moderate latitudes, the following reptile behavior is very characteristic: they creep out to bask in the sun or warm from the influence of its rays to the stone. Thanks to such an adaptive apparatus, the temperature of the body of a snake on a sunny day can be 10-15 degrees higher than the surface of the soil.
It is noteworthy that to the south or in the mountains, sand, stones heated by the sun can not only warm, but also kill the animal. Therefore, reptiles use different adaptation mechanisms to avoid overheating. Lizards have adapted to walk on a red-hot surface, with their tail lifted, raising their torso as much as possible, treading “on toes” and throwing paws high at step.
Snakes during the hot period are more active at night. For example, gyurza - one of the most dangerous snakes in the family of vipers, in spring, coming out of hibernation, leads a day lifestyle, hunts and lays eggs, and by summer it becomes less active and prefers nocturnal wakefulness. A lot of activity in the spring is associated with the hunger of the animal after hibernation, which drives the snake to hunt.
Digestion
If a hungry snake hunts at low temperature, then catching and swallowing prey can digest food for several days. Even if warm enough, it takes a lot of time. This factor remains decisive: changes in the temperature of the body of the snake and the life of the animal depends entirely on the climate - if it is too cold, the snake will not be able to digest food and die. The digestive system in reptiles depends on the ambient temperature.
Breath
Respiratory rate also indirectly affects the body temperature of the animal. Fence iguanas, so nicknamed for love to crawl out in the afternoon to warm up higher and therefore often found on fences, breathe one and a half times more often with increasing ambient temperature.
Leather
The stratum corneum forms scales, shields or plates, perfectly protects against moisture evaporation and damage, but does not breathe and does not participate in heat transfer processes or the excretion of metabolic products, in contrast to the physiological characteristics of warm-blooded animals. In the process of evolution, the glands in the skin of the reptiles practically did not survive, with the exception of a few that emit odorous secrets for chemical signaling, for example, attracting the opposite sex during the mating season or designating the territory.
The body temperature of snakes is most associated with active adaptation to environmental indicators, the search for a warm or cool place, and their habitats are overwhelmingly located in warm climatic zones. Although some mechanisms of thermoregulation of reptiles are more perfect than that of amphibians. And what the body temperature of a snake is less dependent on the environment than, for example, in lizards.