What Do Turtles Do in the Winter? Where Do They Go?

I live in an area where turtles seem to be everywhere. During the summer it’s impossible to take a walk outside and not see a turtle, but during the winter they are nowhere to be seen. So this got me wandering, where do turtles go in the winter? To find out the answer I decided to do some research, here is what I found out.

During winter most turtles hibernate, and they usually do so at the bottom of a lake, or pond, and in river banks. In some cases when there is no suitable water body nearby, turtles will bury themselves underground and spend the winter there.

But not every turtle is the same, turtles can be split into 3 major categories: semi-aquatic turtles, land turtles and sea turtles. Every category is different from the other, one category can breathe underwater through their butts while the other category can’t live in water. Some of them prefer to spend the winter underground, while some prefer to travel to a warm place.

Each category is quite different from the other. So let’s take a closer look at each individual category and see what they do during the winter.

Where Turtles Go in the Winter

When the temperature starts to drop, but not enough to freeze water, most semi-aquatic turtles will go into a lake, and find a safe spot to hibernate. In most cases that safe spot is at the bottom of the lake, since you won’t find too many predators down there.

If the nearby lake or pond is too shallow, and will freeze completely, or there is none nearby, turtles will burrow themselves underground and hibernate there until winter passes.

Other times they might simply choose to spend the winter hibernating under a big pile of leaves, or in a tree burrow.

Unlike other animals that make provisions for winter, turtles don’t need to since hibernation is a long uninterrupted sleep during which they don’t need to eat dring, or even breath too much for that matter.

How Turtles Hibernate

Hibernation is a state in which some mammals and reptiles will enter during cold periods. When they are in this state, they will reduce their metabolic rate, which means that they will use less energy, they won’t require any food or water, and they will sleep the whole time.

When the weather starts to get cold the metabolism of a turtle will automatically start to slow down. And as a result their hearts will start to slow down, along with all other processes that happen in their bodies.

In general the heart of a turtle beats between 40 and 45 times per minute, when they hibernate they will slow down to around 10 beats per minute. As a result of this slow down they will need considerably less oxygen, sometimes due to unfortunate situations turtles don’t have access to oxygen at all, but because they are hibernating they are able to live without oxygen up to 5 months.

So this is the short version. But there is one more thing that I would like to quickly cover, and that’s how turtles manage to breathe through their buts while they are underwater.

You might have heard at some point something like: turtles are able to breathe through their butts. And as weird as it sounds that is kind of true, the cloaca is positioned at the end of the turtle’s body so it can be considered the butt of the turtle. But the cloaca acts differently than how you would normally expect a “back end” to work. The cloaca has 4 important roles: execution, urination, reproduction and breathing. 

The cloaca works in a similar way to the lungs, when the turtle is underwater the cloaca will act like a pump that will suck water inside and after it gathers all the oxygen from it, it will expel the water out and then it will start over.

If you want to know more about how the cloaca works you can check out this article: Do Turtles Have Gills? (with Pictures and Videos). And if you want to know more about hibernation you can check this article out: Do Turtles Hibernate? (with Videos).

Now let’s return to where turtles go during the winter.

Where Tortoises Go in the Winter

Land turtles, also known as tortoises, will act very similarly to aquatic turtles when the winter comes.

But since they can’t survive underwater they will mostly go underground. If they are unable to find a good spot underground they will also look for other options like, piles of leaves, tree hollows, and caves.

Tortoises choose their hibernating spot using the same principles as aquatic turtles, so they mostly look for a place where they will be safe from predators, the cold, and snow.

Here is a video showing a tortoise waking up from hibernation in somebody’s backyard:

Before we talk about what sea turtles do in the winter, let’s take a quick look at what turtle hibernation is, since we talked so much about it.

Where Sea Turtles Go in the Winter

Unlike their relatives, sea turtles don’t always hibernate during the winter, some of them prefer to migrate.

Those that hibernate do it the same way as the rest. The first thing that they do is try to find a good and safe spot. One of the most popular spots is The Gulf of Mexico. After they find a suitable place to hibernate they will dig a hole that is usually several inches deep where they will cover themselves with mud, after that they will start hibernating.

The turtles that choose to migrate, will simply start moving to another warmer place as soon as they start feeling that the temperature starts to drop.

The routes taken by the sea turtles are almost the same every year, but lately due to the climate changes they started to change a little. But overall they haven’t changed that much.

Here is a map that shows how turtles migrate in the Atlantic Ocean.

Final Thoughts

So when winter comes turtles will try to find a safe spot to hibernate. This safe spot can be at the bottom of a lake or pond, a hole in the ground, a pile of leaves, or a tree hollow.

It’s important for them that the spot they choose will hide them from predators, and will keep them safe from snow and cold.

When turtles hibernate they basically sleep very deeply. During this time they will need no food or water, and very little oxygen.

There is no big difference between the way aquatic turtles and tortoises hibernate, the only two major differences are that tortoises don’t hibernate underwater and can’t breathe through their butts.

Sea turtles do things a little differently. Some of them hibernate like the rest, while some will prefer to migrate to warmer areas.

I hope this article answers all of your questions, but if you still have some left, you can leave them in the comment section below and I will answer them as soon as possible.

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