My "semi-natural" tortoise hibernation

[GBtortoises]

I was putting my outdoor tortoises to bed for the winter yesterday and amazingly had the foresight to have my camera with me for a change! I thought some might find it interesting.

#1-This is what they're shelter looks like before I begin insulating (yes that's snow):

#2-I remove all the old straw, dig down to the tortoises and make sure that all are as near the center of the shelter as possible. If they aren't I move them toward the center and maintain the same depth:

#3-This is male Eastern Hermann's, as you can see, he is about 2-2.5" under the surface. Temperatures here have been in the low 50's during the daytime, below freezing at night. That is as low as any of mine dig:

#4-After firmly packing the shelter full of new straw I mound up more straw on top to about 2.5' high and about 5' diameter:

#5, 6 & 7- I then cover each mound of straw with plastic to keep out any winter rain and melting snow. The plastic acts as a greenhouse too so I have to carefully watch the weather until we get a good heavy snow to cover them and act as additional insulation. If we get warmer temperatures before we get snow cover I loosen the plastic around the edges to allow for cool air flow into the straw. Once their snow covered I don't see the tortoises again until around late April, early May:

Most of the tortoises under the mounds have been brumating semi-naturally this way for over 12 years here, some nearly 20 years.

 

[Jacqui]

Thank you! That was very interesting.

 

[dmarcus]

Wow seems like a lot of work and worry, glad I have a few years to learn how to do it right... Thanks for posting this...

 

[jeffbens0n]

Very interesting and informative...thanks! Do your tortoises instinctively dig down right where the shelter is? What stops them from digging down somewhere else. I have a large burrow that I considered doing this with, but my russians will often dig down in other places.

 

[Lulu]

Very interesting. That process would be very stressful for me. Have you ever lost any?

Sam the Marginated is still enjoying sunny days outside out here in California. I don't think he misses it out there very much.

 

[Tom]

Great post Gary.

It just looks so foreign there. We are having mid 80s temp everyday right now and nothing but sunshine. I just can't fathom the thought of winter and hibernation right now... freaky. All of my tortoises are in overdrive right now. Eating like pigs and super active.

I'm planning on getting some hermanni or russians soon. I'm really wondering how well that is going to work here. Seriously wondering if I should just plan on having a fridge set up for hibernation. If you were to set up fridges and artificially hibernate, what would your perfect temps be for russians and hermanns?

 

[GBtortoises]

Very interesting and informative...thanks! Do your tortoises instinctively dig down right where the shelter is? What stops them from digging down somewhere else. I have a large burrow that I considered doing this with, but my russians will often dig down in other places.

My Eastern Hermann's have always buried themselves under their above ground shelter. They do all have man made tunnels in another part of their enclosure but only spend time in there in the summer and early fall. Once certain environmental changes begin to take place they all move to the shelter for brumation.

The Russians can be hit or miss. Most of the time all the Russians congregate under the shelter too. But there is often one or two that bury themselves directly in the ground. I just mound straw up over their burrow, cover it with plastic and leave them alone. When doing it that way they have survived 100% of the time.

Here is an example of a Russian tortoise burrow that I did not find and cover the previous fall. This particular female hibernated in a burrow about 8" long with a ceiling only about 3" from ground level. She is still doing fine today:

Here is a different female emerging through the straw from her underground burrow:

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Very interesting. That process would be very stressful for me. Have you ever lost any?

A tortoise has never died here as a result of brumating outdoors on it's own. I had a very long term female Eastern Hermann's, in fact my oldest one die three years ago about 3 weeks after awakening. I have no way of knowing what the actual cause was but when she first appeared she was acting as normal as she had in years passed. At the time of her death she had hibernated here outdoors for about 20 years. In fact, she was one of only four tortoises that I have that had never been indoors for any reason, ever.

I am in no way implying that hibernation, outdoors or indoors is not without risk. I actually discourage people from hibernating their tortoises in most situations!

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"Foreign" is a nice way of putting it! I like to say "nasty" instead! It's cold and getting colder here in the Northeast and wet and getting wetter!

I'm a firm believer in a 40 degree brumation temperature with a humidity level between 50-65%. Realistically, outside of their natural habitat, refrigerators are probably the best and safest way to go when hibernating tortoises and turtles.

This is what I have to look forward to soon, there's tortoises under there somewhere:

Great post Gary.

It just looks so foreign there. We are having mid 80s temp everyday right now and nothing but sunshine. I just can't fathom the thought of winter and hibernation right now... freaky. All of my tortoises are in overdrive right now. Eating like pigs and super active.

I'm planning on getting some hermanni or russians soon. I'm really wondering how well that is going to work here. Seriously wondering if I should just plan on having a fridge set up for hibernation. If you were to set up fridges and artificially hibernate, what would your perfect temps be for russians and hermanns?

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[TylerStewart]

Cool photos and nice setup. With my luck, they'd all come out on a hot (55-60 degree) day in January and use the plastic as a ramp to freedom. Every time I lay a board across a cage (for shade) that isn't screwed in, I have a gust of wind blow it down creating a perfect ramp out. I'm all about screwing them in place nowadays!

 

[GBtortoises]

Tyler-Funny you mention that scenario! In the winter of 1996 we had a few large snow storms and by early January had about 3 feet on the ground, then the temperatures very unseasonally rose to the high 60's and sunny for about a week. All the snow melted rapidly and lmost all of my tortoises came up! Then the temperatures instantly dropped back into the 30's again! I had to bring several of them indoors that I normally wouldn't have. The rest, except for a couple that stayed under, were dug up, put in a spare refrigerator kept there the rest of the winter. We usually don't have problems like that here in the winter. Once it's winter it's usually here to stay until April!

 

[lynnedit]

Wow. Amazing process. I think in the PNW I would use a fridge. We have wet winters, and thus would need a tarp, but it would not stay consistently cold enough to keep them 'down'.

 

[GBtortoises]

Lynne-You hit the nail on the head! The key to the sucess is making sure that the tortoises stay down. The less movement on their part the better.

Like I've said before, I am by no means trying to recommend what I do to anyone else. It works for me and has for 20+ years now with various temperate climate species including Eastern Hermann's, Russians, Ibera, Eastern Box turtles and North American Wood turtles.

But it's extremely important to know your local climate very well to be able to do so.