• Question: Why are some animals warm-blooded and some cold-blooded? Does it affect their behaiour and limit what they can do?

    Asked by rebeccam to Jo, Kevin, Valeria on 21 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Kevin Mahon

      Kevin Mahon answered on 21 Jun 2012:

      It’s down to evolution and adaption – some animals are cold blooded as it suits their environment and lifestyle whereas others are warm blooded for the same reasons. Obviosuly there’s a lot of inflexibility here – we’re not going to get a truely cold blooded mammal any time soon!

      It does affect their behvaior greatly as cold blooded animals obviously need to spend considerably time heating up their blood in the sun. It also restricts what type of environment they can live in – reptiles are unlikely to establish populations in the antartic any time soon!

      Also the feeding habits are affected by this – cold blooded animals need much less food than warm blooded species as they don’t need their metabolism to generate heat for their body – the sun does that!

    • Photo: Joanna Cruden

      Joanna Cruden answered on 21 Jun 2012:

      Warm blooded and cold blooded animals are very different, it is also down to genetics, it does limit their behaviour but neither know any difference and adapt to the environment and their species specific needs.

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