#gatorclaws

so deathclaws are mutants derived primarily from jackson’s chameleons, but they are hybrids and have dna from “mixed animal stock” according to the wiki. 

in the early concept art for fallout and fallout 2 they actually have hair (and they look more or less like werewolves), but the hair was scrapped due to limitations of the rendering software, and while not technically canon, there is a hairy deathclaw in fallout tactics.

so with that in mind, i think we should consider that they might not actually be cold-blooded (i don’t recall that being stated outright anywhere, but correct me if i’m wrong). to be honest, i think a lot of their biology relies on us suspending our disbelief, but there are real-world precedents that break the endotherm-ectotherm binary.

i would guess that deathclaws would be either:

1. mesotherms like lamnid sharks, leatherback sea turtles, and echidnas (and possibly dinosaurs), which aren’t able to thermoregulate as precisely as a typical mammal, but aren’t so at the mercy of their environment as is a typical reptile

or

2. ectothermic homeotherms like crocodiles, which rely on their size to keep their body temperatures stable after they’ve basked in the sun to warm up(gatorclaws, at least, i would put in this category)

as far as whether or not they hibernate/brumate, i would say that they probably exhibit some behavior like that. earlier this year, nat geo published an article about some alligators that survived in a frozen pond via brumation, and hibernation is common among mammals, so whatever mess of dna deathclaws have, i think that’s a strong hypothesis.