As if the Australian snake-necked turtle didn’t have enough going for it, with that magnificent neck, its preference for slow-moving water, and its long life span. These magnificent beasts, Smithsonian’s National Zoo informs us, tend to estivate—”pass the summer in a dormant state,” per Webster’s New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition—when it gets too hot for business.
☀️Can’t stand the heat? Make like an Australian snake-necked 🐢 + burrow under fallen leaves on the forest floor! 🍂 They estivate—become dormant 💤 —when riverbeds dry up, emerging only when the rains return. 🌧️See them at Reptile Discovery Center! ANIMAL DEMOS: 11 a.m. + 3 p.m. pic.twitter.com/h7lwwuqPks
— National Zoo (@NationalZoo) June 24, 2019
Estivate! If you know of a better strategy for dealing with DC’s excruciating summers, please email me. For now I am declaring the Australian snake-necked turtle my summer hero. Please don’t kick any piles of leaves you encounter; I may be under one.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. His book A Bigger Field Awaits Us: The Scottish Soccer Team That Fought the Great War was published in 2018. He lives in Del Ray.
