It's cold outside. How do you stay warm?

Today we had a question come up about how animals have to deal with cold temperatures outside. How animals stay warm is actually pretty complicated. I'm going to explain the difference between a couple of ways that animals stay warm and then I'm going to see if you can match animals to their strategy.

Warm-blooded animals maintain or keep their body temperature around a certain temperature by making their own body heat. Think about yourself, what does your body do when you get cold? Did you say "shiver"?  Shivering muscles produce heat. What do dogs do when they get overheated? They start panting to cool their body off!

Cold-blooded animals use the environment around them to maintain their body temperature. When a reptile, like a crocodile, needs to warm up, they don't shiver. Instead, they head to some sunshine to bask and warm their bodies up. Then they are ready to go be active. If they get over heated, then they have to do something to cool off, like find some shade.

Scientists use other terms to describe how an organism or animal maintains their body temperature. These terms are a little more complicated because sometimes cold blooded animals can have surprisingly high body temperatures. For example, imagine a snake that is sitting on a rock in the sun on a warm day. I bet that snake is going to be pretty "warm-blooded" or have a higher body temperature. Scientists will use the term ectotherms for animals who can't maintain their own body temperature like fish, insects, reptiles, and amphibians. Endotherms are animals that maintain their own body temperature, like birds and mammals. I remember the meaning of endotherms because they produce heat or cool down in (en) side their own body.

Use whichever term that you like, but just remember that just because an organism is cold-blooded, doesn't mean that it is always cold.

Think about where you expect warm-blooded (endotherms) and cold-blooded (ectotherms) to live.  Do you think there are many cold-blooded animals in the Arctic? Why or why not?

What would be good about being warm-blooded or cold-blooded? Give me some answers in the comment section below!

Now, for the real fun. These are some of the pets that I have around my house. You let me know if whether I have a warm-blooded (endotherm) or cold-blooded (ectotherm) pet. Put your answers in the comments.

A - Caterpillar

B - Butterfly

C - Dog (Tattoo)

D - Chicken (Dumpling)

E - Cat (Miss Piggy)

To learn more about warm and cold blooded animals, check out the links below. One of them even has infrared pictures that let you "see" an animal's body heat.

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/classification/kc_classification_blood.htm

http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_galleries/ir_zoo/coldwarm.html