Biology 3602A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Torpor, Ground Squirrel, Aestivation
5 Aug 2016
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Have to expend metabolic energy to maintain temperature: shivering, panting, moving around more, etc. to stay warm, and stay cool with sweating. Within animal"s best interest to stay in tnz. Challenging for small euthermic [maintaining optimal temperature] animals as they have the higher sa:v ratio. A lot of small animals (and also not small animals) will hibernate, which is defined as decreasing mr and metabolic temperature so they don"t have to spend that during its hibernation. Black bear: debated whether bears hibernate or not: only depress mr by 25% and drop temp to 30 from 37oc. Latest research has said that it is hibernation since it"s actively depressing mr but it"s still debatable. Hibernation and torpor: these are both states characterized by active metabolic suppression. Torpor is when they suppress body rate/temp and it"s part of hibernation; hibernation is when there are multiple bouts of torpor (in the winter)
