Warm Blooded vs. Cold Blooded Animals

Warm-blooded vs. Cold-Blooded Animals

Most animals can be classified as either warm-blooded or cold-blooded. For example, all mammals and birds are warm-blooded, while all reptiles, amphibians, insects and fish are cold-blooded. As the owner of a leopard gecko, which is cold blooded, and a dog, which is warm-blooded, I chose this topic for my essay because I wanted to understand exactly what it means to be warm-blooded or cold-blooded, and how these creatures differ.

Basically, the temperature of an animal's blood is directly related to its body temperature. Warm-blooded creatures keep the inside of their bodies at a consistent temperature by generating their own body heat when they are in a cold environment, and cooling their body heat down when they are in a hot place. In order to create heat, warm-blooded animals transform all consumed food into energy. In comparison to cold-blooded animals, warm-blooded animals must eat a lot of food, in order to maintain a consistent body temperature. While they convert some of the food into body mass, the majority of the food is used to maintain their body temperature.

Warm-blooded animals have different ways of changing their body temperatures. They often sweat or pant to give off heat through water evaporation, or stay in cool areas or the water when they need to cool down. Warm-blooded mammals, with the exception of whales, have sweat glands, unlike cold-blooded animals, that enable them to cool down. Warm-blooded animals usually also have fur, hair, feathers or blubber, to keep them warm when needed. When the weather turns cooler, some animals shed their fur or hair, to adjust the climate changes. Warm-blooded animals also have the ability to shiver, if they need to get warmer.

Cold-blooded creatures assume the temperature of their environment. When it is hot, they are hot, and when it is cold, they are cold, too. Oddly, cold-blooded animals can have warmer blood than warm-blooded animals when it is hot. Due to the fact that cold-blooded animals depend on chemical reactions to fuel their muscle activity, cold-blooded animals tend to be more active in hotter weather. Basically, this is because chemical reactions run faster when it is hot. A cold-blooded animal can convert a greater amount of its food into body mass than a warm-blooded animal can.

Cold-blooded animals can often be found lounging in the sun, when they want to get warmer and increase their energy. Many reptiles instinctively know to lie vertical to the direction of the sun in order to take complete advantage of the sun's warmth. Many reptiles also expand their rib cage to extend their bodies or darken their skin to attract more heat. If a reptile becomes too hot, it will change its direction, find shady area, or lighten its skin color to cool down. Many cold-blooded animals shiver, like warm-blooded animals, to stay warm when they are in a cold area. Fish move to deeper waters during the colder months or migrate to different areas. Often fish have a special protein in their blood that helps them to survive frigid temperatures. Many cold-blooded animals hibernate during the winter.

After discovering the difference between warm-blooded and cold-blooded creatures, I watched how my gecko and dog responded to changes in temperature. It was fascinating to discover that they acted accordingly with my research. Also, I found that both animals were able to adjust to changes. This raised the question: Is it better to be a warm-blooded animal or a cold-blooded animal?

Warm-blooded enjoy many advantages that cold-blooded animals do not. For example, warm-blooded animals are able to stay active in cold environments, while cold-blooded animals become extremely sluggish in the cold. Because they depend on their own bodies for temperature control, warm-blooded animals can live nearly anywhere on Earth, while cold-blooded animals would find it very difficult to survive in arctic regions or on high mountains. Unlike cold-blooded animals, war-blooded animals do not need to be warm to find a mate and reproduce, so they can mate anywhere.

On the other hand, cold-blooded animals enjoy their own advantages. For example, they need less energy to survive than their warm-blooded friends. Mammals and birds need a great deal of food and energy to survive, while cold-blooded animals can live on much less. If food is scarce, cold-blooded animals can keep their body temperatures low to survive. Warm-blooded animals do not have this option. In addition, warm-blooded animals are more prone to infections than cold-blooded animals. The constantly changing body temperatures of cold-blooded animals make it hard for viruses and bacteria to survive.