How do snails hibernate or estivate?
In hibernation or aestivation operculate and pulmonate snails react similarly. The heart of the pulmonate may slow down from 36 beats per minute to only three or four. In the operculates it may drop from 53 to only two to three times per minute. As an indication of how much body processes are slowed down, a hibernating pulmonate at 30°F will use as little as 1/50th the amount of oxygen used by an active snail at 59°F.
