Hatchling painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) Blanding's turtles (Emydoidea b
landingi), slider turtles (Trachemys scripta) and snapping turtles (Chelydr
a serpentina) were inoculated with ice at temperatures near the equilibrium
freezing point for their body fluids (ca. -0.7 C) and then frozen at -2.0
C. All animals survived freezing for up to 30 h,but mortality among sliders
and snapping turtles increased rapidly with longer exposures. Despite the
fact that neonates of all four species are able to recover from freezing at
a high subzero temperature, the adaptive strategy manifested by animals in
the field is to avoid freezing altogether via attributes of morphology (pa
inted turtles), behavior (Blanding's turtles, snapping turtles), or distrib
ution (slider turtles). The discovery of a tolerance for freezing in hatchl
ings of species having diverse distributions and natural histories raises t
he possibility that such tolerance is a trait of general occurrence among n
eonatal turtles and that it is not an adaptation specifically enabling anim
als to withstand the rigors of winter.