How Animals Survive

A Temperature Extremes
nimals have some amazing adapta-
tions that help them live in even the
most hostile environments. Consider By Brian Rohrig
camels, for instance. They can thrive
in some of the hottest and driest places on
Earth. Their legs don’t get burned when they Warm-blooded or up would be inefficient and would slow their
kneel on hot sand due to thick leathery patches response times, putting their survival at risk.
on their knees. They can survive for an entire
cold-blooded? For that reason, nearly all large animals are
week without water but, at the same time, they The most important adaptation is how ani- warm-blooded.
can drink 32 gallons of water at once. Their mals regulate their body temperature. Animals What about all the birds and mammals that
body temperature ranges from 93 °F to 107 °F, can be either warm-blooded or cold-blooded. are not large, such as mice and sparrows?
so they don’t need to sweat very often and can Warm-blooded animals, which are mostly The other factor—body shape—comes into
conserve water this way. The spongy bones birds and mammals, need to maintain a rela- play here. Small warm-blooded animals tend
in their noses absorb any excess moisture to tively constant body temperature. The body to have a rounded shape, which ensures that
keep every drop of water in, so the air they temperature of most mammals ranges from the interior of an organism stays warm the
breathe out is dry air. In addition to camels, 97 °F to 103 °F, while birds have an average longest time possible. Most cold-blooded
other animals’ adaptations are equally remark- body temperature of 105 °F. For humans, the organisms have either an elongated or a flat
able. How do they do it? Chemistry helps! commonly accepted average body temperature shape. If you look at a typical fish, their bod-
is 98.6 °F (even though it may vary among ies tend to be flat when viewed head-on from
individuals). the front. Snakes, lizards, and worms tend
Cold-blooded animals do not maintain a to be long and slender. These shapes ensure
constant body temperature. They get their they can heat up and cool down rapidly.
heat from the outside environment, so
their body temperature fluctuates,
based on external temperature. If it
is 50 °F outside, their body tem-
perature will eventually drop to
50 °F, as well. If it rises to 100 °F,
their body temperature will reach
100 °F.
In most instances, the size
and shape of an organism dictate
whether it will be warm-blooded
or cold-blooded. Think about some
large animals—elephants, whales, and
walruses. Their volume is so large that rely- Elephants toss dirt on
ing on the outside environment to heat them themselves to cool off. i st o
ck
photos.com

6 Chemmatters | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013 www.acs.org/chemmatters

 volume of an object decreases, the The metabolism of food within the body
ratio of its surface area to its vol- is often referred to as internal combustion,
http://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/homeostatic-processes-for-

ume increases. In other words, the since the same byproducts are generated as
smaller an animal is, the higher the during a typical combustion reaction—carbon
surface area-to-volume ratio. These dioxide and water. And like combustion reac-
animals lose heat relatively quickly tions, metabolic reactions tend to be exother-
and cool down faster, so they are mic, producing heat.
more likely to be found in warmer For a warm-blooded animal, food is not just a
climates. Larger animals, on the luxury—it is a matter of life and death. If food is
other hand, have lower surface not available for energy, the body’s fat is burned.
area-to-volume ratios and lose heat Once fat reserves are used up, death is immi-
more slowly, so they are more likely nent if a food source is not found. The smaller
thermoregulation-23592046

to be found in colder climates. the warm-blooded animal, the more it must

eat­—relative to its body size—to keep its inter-
nal furnace stoked. That’s why most songbirds
Generating
fly south for the winter.
energy On the other hand, cold-blooded animals
Figure 1. Body temperature vs. ambient temperature for warm-
blooded animals and cold-blooded animals. Warm-blooded animals require require less energy to survive than warm-
a lot of energy to maintain a con- blooded animals do, because much of the
stant body temperature. Mammals energy that drives their metabolism comes
Within a given species, animals tend to be and birds require much more food and energy from their surroundings. It is common to see
larger in colder climates and smaller in warmer than do cold-blooded animals of the same turtles basking in the sun on rocks and logs.
climates, an observation known as Bergmann’s weight. This is because in warm-blooded They are not trying to get a suntan, but rather
rule. For example, whitetail deer in the southern animals, the heat they lose is proportional to are revving up their metabolism. The sun
part of the United States tend to have a smaller the surface area of their bodies, while the heat gives them an energy boost. Muscle activity
body size and less overall mass than whitetail they produce is proportional to their mass. in cold-blooded animals depends on chemical
deer in the far northern states. This means that larger warm-blooded animals reactions, which run quickly when it is hot
There are exceptions but, overall, this rule can generate more heat than they lose and and slowly when it is cold (because the react-
holds true, for the following reason: As the they can keep their body temperatures stable ing molecules move faster when temperature
more easily. Smaller increases).

Heating Up a Cold-Blooded
warm-blooded animals Some reptiles, such as
lose heat more quickly. the python, can go a year

Elephant So, it is easier to stay

warm by being larger.
without eating, because they
do not use food to produce
Cold-blooded animals have either an elongated or flat This energy body heat. And if they lie
shape, which helps them soak up the sun and get warm produced by warm- still, they use little energy, so
when it is hot outside. But why would it take longer for a blooded animals they can afford to eat little.
large animal to warm up? In other words, if an elephant mostly comes from
both images: NASA/JPL-Caltech

was cold-blooded, what would happen if the elephant was food. Food represents
cold and it wanted to warm up? Think of it this way: Imag- stored chemical
ine you are trying to defrost a steak in your microwave. energy (potential
After a few minutes, the outside is warm, but the energy), which is
inside is still cold or frozen. This would be similar converted into other
to trying to heat up a cold-blooded elephant. The forms of energy within
outside of our cold-blooded elephant would heat the body when the
up pretty quickly, but it would take forever to food is metabolized.
absorb enough energy from the environment to Metabolism refers to These turtles just walked photos.com

heat up the inside. all the chemical reac- out of a pool of cool
water. Notice how cold
—Brian Rohrig tions in the body. they still are.

chemmatters | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013 7

 Cold-blooded animals have a disadvantage Osmosis is a process in which water moves energy. Turtles and frogs bury themselves
compared to warm-blooded animals: There is a across a semipermeable membrane—in this in mud under lakes and ponds for up to
certain temperature below which their metabo- case, the cell membrane—from an area of low six months at a time, and, for all practical
lism just won’t work. The reason is that all solute concentration to an area of high solute purposes, they appear dead. There are no
chemical reactions slow down as the tempera- concentration. external signs of life.
ture is lowered, so at low temperatures, all the As water freezes outside of the cell, the When many cold-blooded animals hiber-
chemical reactions in an organism slow down. solute concentration increases because the nate, something interesting happens at the cel-
You may notice that few cold-blooded ani- quantity of liquid water decreases while the lular level. The fluid around the cells, but
mals are active in the winter, and the farther amount of solutes stays the same. As a result, not in the cells, is frozen solid. As water
north you go, the rarer they become. By water flows out of the cell to equalize the con- freezes outside the cell, water from within
contrast, warm-blooded animals are centrated solution outside of the cell (Fig. 2). the cell is drawn out through osmosis.
present in a wider variety At the same time water
of environments and for a is leaving the cells, glucose
longer part of the year than
Short-Term Hibernation
migrates into the cells in
cold-blooded animals. copious amounts. As a
result, the concentration of
Some animals, such as hummingbirds, undergo a short-term
Hibernation hibernation known as torpor. Their nightly torpor is an energy-sav-
dissolved solutes within the
cell increases—a lot. The
For warm-blooded ani- ing mechanism, as their tiny bodies lose heat rapidly. They must
glucose acts as a natural
mals that don’t migrate, feed constantly during the day to keep their body temperature up
antifreeze, as any solute will
one way to survive the and maintain their incredibly fast metabolism. They eat two to
lower the freezing point of a
winter is to sleep through it. three times their body weight every day! If they didn’t enter
given solvent—in this case,
Hibernation is a great strat- torpor at night, they would die, because their bodies would
water. The presence of high
egy that enables animals to lose too much heat due to their large surface area-to-volume
concentrations of solutes
conserve energy when food ratio. They also lack the insulating down feathers that many birds
in the cells allows animals,
is scarce. During hiberna- have, resulting in heat loss.
such as frogs, to hibernate at
tion, body temperature —Brian Rohrig
temperatures below freezing
drops, breathing and heart
rate slow, and most of the
body’s metabolic functions
Joelle Bolt; Reprinted with permission from The Scientist; http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/34223/

are put on hold.

It is almost as if the warm-blooded ani-
mal becomes cold-blooded, as its body
temperature drops considerably. But they
are still alive, and they live off their fat
reserves. Hibernation for extended periods
of time is accomplished only by those
animals that can store a great deal of body
fat, such as bears, groundhogs, and chip-
munks. A black bear loses 15% to 30% of
its weight while hibernating.
Cold-blooded animals hibernate, too.
photos.com

But they need to store less fat than warm-

blooded animals because they require less
title/Freezing-Cells/

Figure 2. Some cold-blooded animals have found ways to counteract the formation of ice, which can
damage their tissues and potentially kill them. For example, antifreeze proteins (1) bind to the surface
of ice crystals outside the cells to prevent these ice crystals from growing (2). As these ice crystals
form, water flows out of the cells to compensate for the increasing concentration of solute in liquid water
outside the cells (3). Inside the cells, compounds called cryoprotectants (4) increase the concentration
of solutes, preventing further water loss and cell damage. Proteins on the cell membranes, called
aquaporins (5), allow water and some cryoprotectants to flow inside the cells.

8 Chemmatters | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013 www.acs.org/chemmatters

 and still survive. While the water around the do not need insulation—it would only slow
cells is frozen, the water in the cells is not. down heat transfer into their bodies.
If water within a cell were to freeze, the cell
membrane would rupture, killing the cell.
Keeping cool Kangaroos and
lions keep cool
by licking their

pho
When you get hot, what’s the first thing that
Keeping warm

tos
forearms.
happens? You start to sweat. The average

.com
When it gets cold outside, you put on more adult has 3 million sweat glands. Evaporation
clothes. Your winter coat does not keep out is an endothermic phase change, meaning it
the cold, but rather keeps in the heat. (Cold must absorb energy to occur. This energy is
itself doesn’t exist—it is simply the absence of drawn from your body, making you cooler.
heat; see the article titled “Why Cold Doesn’t
Exist,” on p. 10.) Birds and mammals also rely
on insulation to prevent heat loss. The most
effective insulation traps air, since air is one
of the best insulators. Wool tends to be warm
because its fibers are curled, effectively trap-
Cats have sweat
ping air and keeping you (and sheep) warm.
glands not only
Birds fluff up their feathers when they want to
on the pads of their

sh
tt

u
er
stay warm, since fluffing introduces air. sto
ck
feet, but also on their
For mammals without hair,
sh u

tongues! When a cat licks

t te

insulation is accomplished
rs

oc
itself, it may not be only to keep clean, it could
t

k
by blubber, a thick layer
also be to cool itself, because the saliva on
of fat tissue which helps
their fur evaporates. Kangaroos will lick their
to insulate an animal’s Anytime you lose forearms for the same reason.
body because fat does energy, your body will feel The key to surviving in hot climates is not
not transfer heat as cool. Evaporation requires only to keep your body from overheating but
well as muscle and energy because forces of also to prevent water loss. Animals that are
skin. This blubber may attraction between water adapted to desert life are not heavy sweaters.
be two feet thick in molecules—called intermo- Because water is scarce, they cannot afford
some whales! Whales, lecular forces—need to be to lose water by sweating. Also, a great deal
tuna, dolphins, and other overcome when water goes of water is lost through breathing out, so
warm-blooded marine from a liquid to a gas.
ist Cool desert animals expel dry air, reabsorbing the
animals also rely on another ock
The energy that goes water in their breath before it has a chance to
ingenious method to conserve heat. Artery into overcoming be expelled.
To prevent excessive heat loss from these attractive The ability of animals to survive in extreme
extremities such as fins and flippers— Warm
forces comes
Cool environments is quite remarkable. Whether it
which are not well insulated—aquatic from your body. is in the freezing corners of Siberia or the siz-
animals rely on a “countercurrent Do animals zling hot desert of the Sahara, animals have
heat-exchange method,” in which the
Vein sweat? Most found ways to adapt and thrive, and how they
arteries that carry warm blood away don’t, but some do it will never cease to amaze us!
from the heart are positioned directly Warm do. Dogs sweat
against the veins that carry cool blood to the mainly between the Selected references
heart. So, the warmer blood leaving the heart pads on the bottom of their paws. One nota- Denny, M.; McFadzean, A. Engineering Animals:
through the arteries warms the cooler blood ble exception is the American Hairless How Life Works: Harvard University Press:
entering the heart through the veins. Terrier, which
Cambridge, MA, 2011.
In contrast to birds and mammals, lizards, Mone, G. 20 Things You Didn’t Know About...
has sweat
istock

Hibernation. Discover, March 2013, p 74.

frogs, snakes, and other cold-blooded animals glands all Streever, B. Cold: Adventures in the World’s Coldest
over its body, Places, Little, Brown and Company: New York,
illustrating the 2009.
Streever, B. Heat: Adventures in the World’s Fiery
fact that fur tends Places, Little, Brown and Company: New York,
to inhibit sweat- 2013.
ing because if the
om
sweat can’t evaporate, ph ot o
s.c
Brian Rohrig teaches chemistry at Metro Early
it doesn’t help College High School in Columbus, Ohio. His most
American Hairless Terriers recent ChemMatters article, “Not Milk? Living with
in the cooling have sweat glands all over Lactose Intolerance,” appeared in the April 2013
process. their body, but not hair or fur. issue.

chemmatters | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013 9