Question

What is Homoiothermous? Give examples and explain in brief?

Answer 1

Various animals such as birds and mammals have a certain body temperature which helps the animal in its metabolic activities. These animals are divided into two broad categories on the basis of which animals can actually regulate their internal body temperature - poikilotherms and homeotherms.

Complete answer:
Homeotherms are basically warm-blooded animals that maintain a particular stable internal body temperature which is always regardless of external influence. These kinds of warm-blooded animals often show thermoregulation. Now, thermoregulation is a simple process through which the body maintains its own internal temperature. Examples are mammals, birds, bats and rabbits.

In the summer season, when the outside temperature is greater than body temperature we sweat more intensely. This causes evaporative cooling and brings down the body temperature. Whereas, in the winter season, when the temperature present is below the temperature of the body, then shivering takes place. The skeletal muscle starts to vibrate and also produces heat which raises the body temperature.

Thermoregulation is very energetically expensive, in the case of small animals such as shrews and hummingbirds. They also have a much larger surface area when we relate to their volume. So they tend to lose their body heat very fast when it is cold outside. Due to this process, they have to expend a lot of energy to generate body heat. Thus, it is seen that very small animals are rare in Polar Regions.

The polar animals have a very thick fatty layer under their skin which is known as blubber. Adipose tissue has a very low thermal conductivity, and therefore it does not transfer any heat as well as the various other tissues and materials which include muscle or skin, thus, helping in insulating an animal's body.

Note: The importance of thermoregulation is:
(1) Thermoregulation is very helpful in controlling the loss or gain of heat.
(2) It also helps in maintaining an optimum temperature range of an organism.
(3) If the internal temperature of our body drops or rises outside of the defined normal range, will get adjusted due to thermoregulation.