Glossary · 🤔 Behaviour
Thermoregulation
Thermoregulation is how a reptile controls its body temperature behaviourally — moving between the warm basking spot and the cool end of its thermal gradient because, as an ectotherm, it can't generate its own heat.
This is why the thermal gradient exists and why a reptile basks then retreats. An animal that's always hiding from the heat, or always glued to the basking spot, may be telling you the temperatures are wrong.