Most of the papers I read on reptile hibernation focus on changes in serum hormones, metabolites, and behavior. Studies on O2 consumption are mostly conducted on species who do fancy stuff (freeze, submerge, and all that jazz), and I can't find much data on reptile metabolic depression under normal conditions, let alone comparative studies. The closest I could find to a review is Hailey & Loveridge (1997), a paper on dormant Kinixys spekii which includes a sparse review of metabolic depression in other hibernating reptiles (all studies > 35 years old), and Guppy & Withers (1999) whose review is based essentially on the same studies. I imagined this body of work would have expanded since then, but managed to find very little.
Would much appreciate thoughts and recommendations from someone more familiar with the subject.
Hello Shahar: In addition to the paper cited by Arvind, you might, if you haven't already, search for the phrase "cloacal breathing". The painted turtle - along with a number of other turtles - ventilate their cloaca during hibernation and so what may appear on simple observation to be anaerobic conditions, may not be physiologically.
As an aside, many newly metamorphosed cerambycid beetles (before they emerge from the wood) are evidently anaerobic. At least Calcium Cyanide does not kill them, even when exposed to the poison for 2 days. I discovered that when chopping these beetles out of wood and putting them in kill jars...alcohol is lethal. Best regards, Jim Des Lauriers
Although Tegu lizards are also fancy (they present seasonal reproductive endothermy), take a look at this study where authors have measured O2 consumption during different seasons, including the winter, when they hibernate and consume oxygen at rate that is 20% of that during summer.
Article Seasonal metabolic depression, substrate utilisation and cha...
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