# Hibernating tortoise?



## drew54 (Nov 21, 2018)

I keep seeing all these posts about tortoises wanting to hibernate. This is very confusing to me as I didn't think reptiles hibernated but instead brumate. Am I correct in this as hibernating is a mammalian behavior and brumation is reptilian behavior?


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## wellington (Nov 21, 2018)

You are correct, they do brumate. Most of us stopped using brumating as most people don't know that is the proper term. I myself got tired in using the correct term and then having to explain.


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## Tom (Nov 21, 2018)

drew54 said:


> I keep seeing all these posts about tortoises wanting to hibernate. This is very confusing to me as I didn't think reptiles hibernated but instead brumate. Am I correct in this as hibernating is a mammalian behavior and brumation is reptilian behavior?


This has been debated back and forth here. It seems different people define the terms differently. I've always used them interchangeably, which some say is technically incorrect, while others say it doesn't matter. There also appears to be debate about what reptiles are actually doing during this cooling process.

@Markw84 offered the best explanation I've heard.

In my opinion, this is semantics. Everyone knows exactly what you are talking about, in a practical sense, with either term.


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