Sweating is a mechanism in mammals that helps them regulate their body temperatures. Sweat glands produce moisture that evaporates on the skin to cool the body when it is overheated.
Reptiles do not have sweat glands and thus are not slimy. Instead, their skin is usually cool and dry. Reptiles are cold-blooded, and during cooler parts of the year, they become inactive, because of their slow metabolism and heat-seeking behavior.
For more information on how the bodies of reptiles regulate temperature without sweating, continue reading.
Purpose of Sweating
Sweating is a natural function of your body that activates when you experience temperature change in your surrounding, exercise, or have a fever. We might only associate sweat with temperature control, but sweat also has numerous other benefits, such as helping clear your body of heavy metals, PCBs, and BPAs.
Sweat is produced by glands in the deeper layer of the skin, the dermis. Sweat glands occur all over the body, but are most numerous on the forehead, the armpits, the palms, and the soles of the feet.
Sweat is mainly water, but it also contains some salts. Its main function is to control body temperature. As the water in the sweat evaporates, the surface of the skin cools. An additional function of sweat is to help with gripping, by slightly moistening the palms.
Reptiles and Their Attributes
Some common attributes of reptiles are creeping and burrowing terrestrial animals with scales on their body. They are cold-blooded animals found in most of the warmer regions of the world. Their skin is dry, and rough, without any glands.
Their body is divided into the head, neck, trunk, and tail. Few of these shed the scales on their skin as skin cast. Respiration takes place with the help of the lungs. Their skull is monocondylic.
Limbs may or may not be present. If they have limbs, they are two pairs of pentadactyl limbs, each bearing claws. Snakes do not have limbs. The heart is 3 chambered.
However, crocodiles have a 4-chambered heart. The nervous system comprises 12 pairs of cranial nerves. Reptiles do not have external ear openings. The tympanum represents the ear. They possess a typical cloaca. Reptiles are generally uricotelic.
They mostly excrete nitrogenous wastes such as uric acid. Fertilisation is internal. They are oviparous and the eggs are very yolky. Development is direct. E.g. Snakes, Turtles, Lizards, and Crocodiles.
Are There Any Warm-blooded Reptiles?
Most if not all known reptiles are cold-blooded; the fact that they cannot change their body temperatures is true for almost all reptiles. However, a newly made discovery by scientists shows the tegu lizard’s ability to raise its body temperature to 10°C warmer than its surroundings.
It makes the tegu the first known warm-blooded lizard. What is not known is how the tegu raises its temperature, or why.
How Else Do Reptiles Cool Down?
Unlike birds and mammals, reptiles do not maintain a constant internal body temperature. Without fur or feathers for insulation, they cannot stay warm on a cold day, and without sweat glands or the ability to pant, they cannot cool off on a hot one which means they cannot regulate their body temperature.
The body temperature of a reptile will be the same as its surroundings. Reptiles regulate their body temperature through a process called thermoregulating.
Putting it in simple words, this means basking in a warm area to heat up and moving to a cool area to cool down. Reptiles are experts in thermoregulation and can maintain an ideal body temperature most of the time. Reptiles hibernate in winter if the weather is too cold for them to reach the required body temperature.
Reptiles will also seek out cool areas and stay inactive should the temperature get too high. A lot of people think reptiles need very warm temperatures, however, reptiles can boil to death if kept too warm. In fact, in some cases, reptiles can tolerate cool temperatures better than very hot temperatures.
Is It Only Reptiles That Don’t Sweat?
Sweat glands produce moisture that evaporates on the skin to cool the body when it is overheated. Coldblooded animals rely on the external environment to regulate their body temperature, so they do not have sweat glands. Reptiles, amphibians, and fish lack sweat glands.
What Happens When a Reptile Gets Too Cold
Reptiles are ectotherms cold-blooded animals whose body temperature regulation depends on external sources, such as direct sunlight or a heater.
Without external heat sources, all reptile snakes, lizards, turtles, and tortoises become hypothermic, meaning their body temperature declines. As a result, they become less active, their digestion slows, their immune system doesn’t function properly, and they become susceptible to secondary infections.
Different species of reptiles live best at different temperature ranges called their preferred optimal temperature zone. A reptile’s preferred optimal temperature zone depends on what geographic location the reptile species originated and what type of terrain (e.g., desert vs. rain forest vs. temperate forest, etc.) the species typically inhabits.
Unfortunately, too many reptile owners purchase or adopt their pets without first researching the environmental conditions the animal requires to thrive, and as a result, the pet becomes hypothermic and gets sick
How To Tell If A Reptile Is Overheating?
While reptiles can withstand high temperatures, they can still get a heatstroke. Some signs that a reptile might show if it is overheating are;
Heavy panting/rapid breathing
- Heavy panting/rapid breathing
- Shakiness/staggering
- Disorientation
- Refusing food
- Inability to perch
- Wobbly/unbalanced
- Lack of or decreased droppings
Conclusion
As humans, we experience sweating every day and assume that it is a process that all animals must live through but that is untrue as reptiles do not sweat at all. Reptiles are cold-blooded creatures and do not have to sweat to regulate their body temperatures but instead have other ways to cool down.
