Do Turtles Really Breathe Through Their Butts?

Did you know that common snapping turtles can breathe through their butts? Because turtles are ectothermic, or cold-blooded, they rely on heat from their environment to sustain their bodily functions. But during the winter, the water they live in gets colder, so their metabolism slows down by 95% and they enter brumation, the reptile version of hibernation. During brumation, they absorb oxygen from the water around them through blood vessels in their skin. The highest concentration of these blood vessels happens to be in the cloaca, an orifice at the base of their tail!