Hot and cold blooded animals

Content

• Examples of warm-blooded animals
• Examples of cold-blooded animals

Studies in thermo-physiology have been able to determine that there are not only two categories (cold-blooded animals and warm-blooded animals) for which both concepts are disused terms.

However, both distinctions have been used and continue to be used excessively, which is why their explanation is indispensable.

Thewarm-blooded animals They are those that can maintain an approximately constant body temperature regardless of the climatic variations of the environment. Most mammals maintain internal body temperature between 34º and 38º.

They may have some variation in their body temperature, but this is generally minimal. In other words, these animals are said to have thermal homeostasis. Warm-blooded animals are also known as endotherms.

Examples of warm-blooded animals

Types of thermoregulation

Warm-blooded animals have three different aspects of thermoregulation:

• Endothermy. Some warm-blooded animals have the ability to produce internal heat in their own body. the manifestation of it is observed after shivering, panting or burning fat.
• Homeothermy. This condition was previously known as warm-blooded animals, although it is one of the three aspects that this type of animal can present. It is the characteristic of maintaining a constant body temperature that is higher than the ambient temperature.
• Tachymetabolism. These animals maintain a high rate of metabolism at rest.In other words, they are animals that maintain body temperature after being at rest since, in this way, they maintain their body heat.

Although most mammals and birds, being warm-blooded animals, exhibit all three characteristics of thermoregulation, in certain cases it has been found that they may not exhibit all three. Thus, in the case of bats or some small birds, they may have two of the three characteristics. However, they are still called warm-blooded animals.

Although the term is currently in disuse in the scientific context since that of ectothermic animals is used, this classification refers to those animals that regulate their body temperature based on the environmental temperature.

Generally, cold-blooded animals live in very hot climates and they are not frequently seen in cold climates. However, there may be exceptions.

Examples of cold-blooded animals

Types of thermoregulation

• Ectothermy. All cold-blooded animals can be considered ectothermic animals since they regulate their body temperature in relation to environmental temperature.
• Poikilothermia. They are animals that regulate their body temperature, matching it to that of their immediate environment.
• Bradymetabolism. They are animals that vary the speed of their metabolism to regulate their body temperature depending on the existing food and the ambient temperature.

As with warm-blooded animals, not all cold-blooded animals have all three characteristics of thermoregulation.

What are ovoviviparous animals?

After placing two animals, one cold-blooded and the other warm-blooded, under infrared light, the warm-blooded animal appears to emit its own light, that is, its own heat. In contrast, the cold-blooded animal remains dark in color.

For this reason, cold-blooded animals need to inhabit warm places and warm their body by sunbathing or using other external mechanisms to raise body temperature.