Dr. Anusha Shankar Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University Hot and cold hummingbirds: The ecology, physiology and genes of cold endotherms Information about Dr. Anusha Shankar here
Hummingbirds live fast. They have among the highest metabolic rates of all vertebrates, and must eat constantly to stay alive. I will talk about some of what I have learned about how they manage their energy budgets during the day, and how they allocate time and energy to different activities based on changes in their environment. At night, they save energy by entering the fascinating hibernation-like state of torpor. How do they manage to get so cold (~50°F/10°C) and slow their metabolism down as much as they do, and stay alive? This is what I am currently working on finding out. My work integrates methods and approaches from ecology, physiology and transcriptomics to understand how these tiny endotherms manage to survive in a variety of environmental conditions. Comments are closed.
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