Western New York Record Cold Temperatures Today
Checked the temperature at the house this morning and it was -7° F. We are talking COLDNESS!! The National Weather Service Weather Station here in Allegany State Park reported a -18° F and now we are talking FREEZING temperatures!! I can’t help but worry about the Eastern Box Turtle (Franklin) that we have been following for the past 6 months. He went underground into his hibernaculum on the 1st of October and we don’t anticipate him coming out of the ground till late April or early May.
Franklin in the Summer
I feel the ground temperatures will help keep him warm and he has a good 1-2 feet of snow cover insulating the ground. I was doing some research on wintering Eastern Box Turtles and (Costanzo and Claussen 1990) found the Eastern Box Turtles body is capable of withstanding the freezing of a substantial portion of their body fluid. However the turtle will freeze to death if his body temperature drops below -0.4°C (32.28°F).
Are you as worried about Franklin as much as I am now? Hardest part is having to wait till spring to find out if he survived the coldest day of the past 3 years or not!!
Post has been created with my iPhone!
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Beautiful sunrise/sunset!?
Snow cover is a great insulator; hopefully it will be enough to keep Franklin warm.
I have good positive feeling about Franklin 🙂
26 January 2011 at 12:33 pm