Shiny Snorunt Hoenn Region Project! Follow the project on my profile. Likes, shares, comments and saves are highly appreciated! Thanks for the support!
Snorunt (005/135) Hoenn Region Project! Follow the project on my profile. Likes, shares, comments and saves are highly appreciated! Thanks for the support!
The adorable Snorunt thrives in cold temperatures, as low as -150 degrees Fahrenheit according to the pokédex! The lowest temperature ever recorded on our planet is -128.6°F(or -89.2°C), which was measured in Antarctica in 1982. To learn more about how Snorunt lives in similar environments, let’s take a look at one of Antarctica’s residents, the penguin!
Penguins are able to stay warm due to their feathers - they have four layers of different feathers, which trap heat close to their bodies, like wearing four big blankets. They can puff out, or pull in, their feathers as needed to regulate their heat, and just about every part of their body is adapted to lose as little heat as possible as it functions. Penguins also famously huddle together to share warmth, which Snorunt does too! It’s pokédex entry from Black & White says “it is said that several Snorunt gather under giant leaves and live together in harmony.”
Of course, for any of this to apply to Snorunt, we’re making the underlying assumption that Snorunt needs to stay warm in order to survive. It’s possible that through *~*~pokemon magic~*~* Snorunt simply has a very low body temperature and is perfectly comfortable in cold weather. But for basically every animal in our world, including the penguins, the body needs to stay above a certain temperature in order to survive. The chemical reactions, blood circulation, and processes that we rely on to function are significantly slowed in cold temperatures. Besides, there is one piece of evidence that Snorunt needs to keep its body temperature above a certain level, even if it lives in extreme climates: it shivers!
Shivering is a way for muscles to generate heat, by contracting and expanding very quickly. This uses up energy, but ultimately produces heat to raise the body temperature back towards functional levels. If an animal’s body temperature is too cold, the heart has to work harder to pump blood, the cells in the body will shrink and dry out, brain activity slows down, muscles can stop working, and blood vessels can freeze - all of that happens during hypothermia.
There are some animals that can survive with surprisingly cold body temperatures, with clever mechanisms to get around this. There is an arctic squirrel, for example, who’s body temperature reaches a low 28 degrees Fahrenheit (-3 Celsisus) during its hibernation cycle. Similarly, there is a frog who completely freezes solid for months every winter (see our entry on Glaceon). In those examples, the animals’ bodies produce a natural anti-freeze substance that prevents their blood from freezing solid in the extreme cold. It’s likely that Snorunt has the same!
Snorunt’s coat contains different layers of fur to help regulate its body temperature, and it shivers to generate heat in its muscles. Snorunt likely also has a lower resting body temperature than most pokémon, producing cryoprotectants to prevent itself from freezing solid in extreme climates.
