DELAYED INOCULATIVE FREEZING IS FATAL TO HATCHLING PAINTED TURTLES (CHRYSEMYS-PICTA)

Hatchling painted turtles from northcentral Nebraska were placed indiv idually into artificial nests in jars of damp soil and then were expos ed to subzero temperatures using an ecologically realistic protocol. S ome animals froze during the tests, but none of these turtles survived . Instead, animals that tolerated subzero temperatures remained unfroz en and sustained a state of supercooling. Skin of the turtles resisted the propagation of ice into body compartments from the environment, b ut many animals nonetheless were inoculated after a delay that was inf luenced both by the duration of exposure and by.the minimum temperatur e experienced during the test.