Cold vs. Warm Blooded Animals
What is difference between Cold Blooded and Warm Blooded Animals?
There are many different types of animals on earth; consisting of cold-blooded and warm-blooded creatures.
Most people do not think about the differences between the two types, although many are quickly recognizable and very easy to distinguish.
This article defines some species and the differences between cold-blooded and warm-blooded animals.
Difference between Cold Blooded and Warm Blooded Animals
Classification
There are several cold-blooded species and they are different in the way your body changes its temperature according to the variations in the environment.
They are cold-blooded when their surroundings are cold and hot when it is hot.
This is called thermoregulation and there are three variants:
- Exothermic: body temperature is regulated by the warmth or coldness of the external environment, such as sun, water, or air temperature. These creatures are heated by the sun or by the cold water, such as reptiles.
- Poikilothermy: body temperature is regulated by external changes that increase and decrease according to the surroundings. They are hot or cold depending on how they move between environments, such as frogs or turtles.
- Bradimetabolism: the temperature of the body is determined by its metabolism. They can be creatures that enter a state of hibernation depending on the external temperature or the availability of food, such as some insects.
There are also numerous species of warm blood whose body temperature is maintained at constant levels and are identified by how thermoregulation adjusts to the temperature of your body.
There are three types of thermoregulation for warm-blooded species, and they are:
- Endothermic: body temperature is controlled by internal means such as trembling when it is cold.
- Homeothermic: body temperature is stable regardless of the external environment and tends to have somehow higher temperature than the surrounding environment, for example humans.
- Tachymetabolism: body temperature is maintained by a high metabolism, as with birds.
Advantages
Cold-blooded animals have several advantages that require much less energy to survive compared to warm-blooded animals; therefore, they need less food.
Second, they do not provide a compatible environment for germs, parasites or microorganisms that grow and are more resistant to infections,
however, when they do not get an illness; they lower their body temperature to fight the infection.
Although many cold blooded reptiles like leopard geckos can be as fast as warm-blooded animals,
warm-blooded animals have more stamina due to their larger metabolism that generates energy more quickly.
Warm-blooded animals are active in cold environments when their counterparts can barely move.
Cold-blooded animals can hunt for food during climates of extreme cold or heat,
while cold-blooded animals can only hunt after they have warmed up in the sun.
Warm-blooded animals have a more developed immune system.
Types
Examples of cold-blooded animals: fish, insects, spiders, frogs, crocodiles, bees, and termites.
Examples of warm-blooded animals: humans, dogs, cat, elephants, monkeys, deer, mice, horses, lions and cows.
In Summary:
- In cold-blooded animals, body temperature changes with variations in the environment. In warm-blooded animals the body temperature remains at constant levels.
- Cold-blooded animals have several advantages, including requiring much less energy to survive as opposed to their warm-blooded counterparts, so they need less food.
- Warm-blooded animals have a better development of the immune system.
