2.5 Metabolism And Adverse Conditions

• The different types of dormancy are hibernation, aestivation, and daily torpor.
• Dormancy allows survival when the costs of continuing normal metabolic activity would be too high.
• Metabolic rate is reduced to save energy.
• Dormancy involves a decrease in metabolic rate, heart rate, breathing rate, and body temperature.
• Dormancy can either by predictive or consequential.
• Predictive dormancy is before the onset of adverse conditions.
• Consequential dormancy is in response to onset of adverse conditions.
• Hibernation allows survival in winter or low temperature.
• Aestivation allows survival in periods of high temperature or drought.
• Daily torpor is a period of reduced activity and is carried out by animals with high metabolic rates.
• Migration avoids metabolic adversity by expending energy to relocate to a more suitable environment. This can be innate or learned.
• Specialised techniques such as satellite tracking and leg rings are used to study long-distance migration.