Torpor
Torpor is a physiological state of the body. It occurs in some small warm-blooded animals when food is scarce.
Some animals have periods of torpor every day, including hummingbirds.[1][2] So do some small mammals, for example, rodent species (such as mice), and bats.[3] Many small marsupials also have daily periods of torpor.[4]
Torpor is a well controlled thermoregulatory process. It is not the result of switching off thermoregulation.[5]
Torpor Media
Lystrosaurus skull showing prominent tusks; growth rings within these tusks (not visible externally) have been used to infer periodic metabolic stress consistent with torpor-like states.
Anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna) in nocturnal torpor during a cold winter night (−8 °C (18 °F) near Vancouver, British Columbia. The bird remained in torpor with an unchanged position for more than 12 hours.
Tri-colored bat Perimyotis subflavus in torpor (family Vespertilionidae)
Related pages
References
- ↑ Hainsworth F.R. & Wolf L.L. 1970. Regulation of oxygen consumption and body temperature during torpor in a hummingbird, Eulampis jugularis'. Science 168 (3929) (1970). p. 368–369. doi:10.1126/science.168.3929.368.
- ↑ HummingbirdsMigratory Bird Center, Smithsonian National Zoological Park.
- ↑ Bartels W; Law B.S. & Geiser F. 1998. Daily torpor and energetics in a tropical mammal, the northern blossom-bat Macroglossus minimus (Megachiroptera). Journal of Comp. Physiol. B 168 (3) (1998). p. 233–239. doi:10.1007/s003600050141.
- ↑ Geiser Fritz 1994. Hibernation and daily torpor in marsupials – a review. Australian Journal of Zoology 42 (1) (1994). p. 1–16. doi:10.1071/zo9940001.
- ↑ Geiser, Fritz 2004.. Metabolic rate and body temperature reduction during hibernation and daily torpor. Annu. Rev. Physiol. 66 (66) (2004). p. 239–274. doi:10.1146/annurev.physiol.66.032102.115105.