This painted turtle is a cold-blooded animal.
Do you know what are the benefits or advantages of cold-blooded animals? Here are 3 advantages cold-blooded animals have that warm-blooded animals don’t have.
Generally, I don’t sit around my house researching obscure animal facts, but if I come across something cool I’ll share it. Well, the other day I was reading about reptiles and came across some neat stuff. Reptiles, similarly to fish and amphibians are cold-blooded animals. This is different than birds and mammals, which are warm-blooded. There are advantages to being cold-blooded because if there weren’t they wouldn’t be around any more.
What Does It Mean To Be Cold-Blooded?
First, I want to remind you what it means to be cold-blooded. Cold-blooded animals can’t maintain or regulate their own body temperature. They are able to warm or cool their body based on their surroundings.
If they are cold, they sit in the sun to warm up. Or if they are hot, they go to the shade to cool off.
3 Advantages of Cold-Blooded Animals
Can Eat Less Food – Cold-blooded animals need less food to survive than warm-blooded animals. Warm-blooded animals need to eat food often because they use a lot of energy simply maintaining their body temperature.
In contrast, cold-blooded animals don’t need to use all that energy maintaining their body temperature and can survive on less food. In other words, they can eat food less often to survive.
Able To Live In More Inhospitable Areas – Since cold-blooded animals don’t need to eat very often they are able to live in areas with less food. For example, they do well in deserts.
Snakes are cold-blooded animals.
Harder For Bacteria And Viruses To Live In Them – Bacteria and viruses spread diseases and infections in their host animals. This is a problem for all animals. Warm-blooded animals are always a nice, warm temperature, creating a good environment for bacteria and viruses to live. To combat this they have a good immune system.
In contrast, cold-blooded animals are not a good host because their temperature fluctuates so much. It is harder for the bacteria and viruses to live inside an animal whose body temperature is changing frequently.