Torpor and hibernation

• Main Author: Clarke, Andrew
• Format: Book
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University Press 2017
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199551668.003.0011

A diurnal (circadian) rhythm in body temperature is a widespread, and possibly universal, feature of endotherms. Some mammals and birds down-regulate their metabolic rate significantly by night, allowing their body temperature to drop sufficiently that they become inactive and enter torpor. Both the minimum temperature achieved and the duration of torpor are highly variable. Daily torpor is principally a response to reduced energy intake, and a drop in ambient temperature. Hibernation is essentially an extreme form of torpor. Small mammals hibernating at high latitudes have regular arousals during which they urinate and may feed. Bears hibernate with relatively high body temperature, and do not undergo arousal. Only one bird, the poorwill, is known to hibernate. Rewarming during arousal may be fuelled exclusively by metabolism (for example in small mammals in the Arctic) or with significant energy input from basking (for example in subtropical arid areas). The capacity for torpor appears to be an ancestral character in both mammals and birds, possibly related to the origin of endothermy in small species subject to marked diurnal and/or seasonal variation in body temperature. Both deep hibernation and strict endothermy are probably derived characteristics.