BIOLOGY GRADE 11 UNIT 2: ANIMALS

2.6 Homeostasis in animals

After the successful completion of this Self-questioning

section, the student will be able to: Before starting this section, ask you self
this question: “What do I know about
 Define homeostasis, homeotherms, homeostasis and what do I want to learn
poikilotherms, and thermoregulation. from this section?”
 Describe thermoregulation in homeothermic
animals with examples. Animals are directly affected by the

 Explain thermoregulation in poikilothermic environmental situations. A change in these

animals with examples. situations may negatively affect the

 Explain osmoregulation and sugar regulation. physiological functions of their bodies.

 Discuss the mechanisms of controlling Hence, they need to have a controlling

homeostasis. mechanism for these factors in order to

 Discuss the physiological methods of maintain stability in their body. Despite

thermoregulation with examples. environmental changes, most animals

 Discuss the behavioral methods of maintain almost constant internal body

thermoregulation with examples. conditions through homeostasis.

 Discuss the behavioral methods of Homeostasis is the self-regulatory process

thermoregulation with examples by which animals maintain stable internal conditions in their
Appreciate
What happensmechanism of maintaining
to you during a bodies regardless of external condition. Homeostasis helps
homeostasis
cold day and a hot day? Why animals to maintain equilibrium in the internal conditions of
do you feel thirst? How do you their bodies or cells at a set point (normal conditions). Animal
respond? Why? body systems constantly adjust to internal and external
changes in order to maintain this normal condition. A change
in the internal or external environment (stimulus) is detected by receptors in the animals’ bodies,
which sends information to a control center (the brain). As a result, the body system responds to
the stimulus and by returning the value back or toward the set point. Generally, homeostasis
involves four component: stimulus, receptor, control center, and effector.

 Stimulus: is a change in the environment that forces the organism to response. It can be a
change in body condition, such as an increase or decrease in body temperature, glucose, or
water.

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 Receptor: It detect the change in the environment or body condition and send signal to
control center to counteract it, returning the internal condition to the normal. For example,
thermoreceptors (the end of sensory neurons)
 Control center: This receives messages from receptors and sends commands to the
effector to counteract the change. The hypothalamus, a region of the brain, is a control
center for homeostasis.
 Effector: It acts on the stimulus based on the command control center, counteracting the
change and returning the internal body condition to normal. Organs or tissues such as the
kidney, liver, or heart are effectors.

For example, if the animal’s body becomes too warm and the blood glucose rises, adjustments are
made to cool the animal and lower the blood glucose level, respectively, by effector organs. This
enables animals to function in the changing external and internal conditions that surround them.

2.6.1 Thermoregulation

Thermoregulation is the process of maintaining the

Inquiry activity 2.30
internal body temperature constant. Many
What is the difference between
organisms use behaviour, physiology, and
poikilothermic animals and homeothermic
morphology to keep their body temperatures within
animals? Interpret the graph below
optimal level. Based on temperature regulation,
animals can be divided into two groups:

1. Poikilothermic animals: These are animals

that have a body temperature that is the
same as their environment where their
temperature varies with the environmental
temperature are called poikilothermic animals..

2. Homeothermic animals: Animals that keep their body temperature constant in the face of
changing environmental temperatures.

A. Poikilothermic Animals

Poikilothermic animals, also known as ectothermic animals, lack internal control over their body
[Link] body temperature of these organisms is generally similar to the temperature of
the environment. However, individual organisms may burrow themselves into the ground on a hot
day or rest in the sunlight on a cold day to keep their bodies temperature slightly below or above
the environmental temperature. Some poikilothermic animals seek cooler areas during the hottest

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time of the day or may climb onto rocks to capture heat during the coldest time of the day. Some
animals swim in water to cool their body. Some also use burrows to keep their bodies warm
(Figure 2.32), and still others such as bees use group activity or stay in a hive to survive in cold
seasons.

Figure 2.32 Temperature regulation in poikilotherms

B. Homeothermic Animals

Homeothermic or endothermic animals are those animals that can generate internal heat to
maintain a constant internal body temperature. Their cellular processes operate optimally even
when the environment is cold and loses heat when the environment is hot. They use morphological,
physiological and behavioral methods of temperature regulation.

Homeothermic animals can retain heat in a variety of ways when the environment is cold. Some of
the ways of insulation used to conserve the body heat in these animals include fur, fat and feathers.
For example, the arctic fox uses its fluffy tail as extra insulation when it curls up to sleep in cold
weather (Figure 2.33). Homeothermic animals also use vasoconstriction in response to the coldest
environment. Vasoconstrictionis the narrowing of blood vessels to the skin by the contraction of
their smooth muscles to reduce blood flow in the peripheral blood vessels and retain heat. Shivering
is another way of maintaining body temperature in cold. Shivering is caused by involuntary
contractions of your muscles. Muscle contractions require energy from respiration that releases heat
to warm the body.

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Figure 2.33 Temperature regulation during cold weather by puffing up feathers in birds (left),
raising hair in human (middle) and fur in fox (right)

Homeothermic animals can loss heat in a which is produced by the sweat glands
variety of ways when the environment is hot. travels up the sweat duct and out of the
Some of the ways of losing heat in response sweat pore onto the skin surface.
to the hottest environment include
The processes of coordination occur in the
vasodilation which is the opening up of
part of the brain called hypothalamus. When
arterioles to the skin through the relaxation
the temperature of the environment changes
of their smooth muscles and by bringing more
(decreases or increases), signals are sent to
blood and heat to the body surface to loss
the brain to alert the hypothalamus. The
heat and thereby cool their body through
hypothalamus then responds by activating the
radiation and evaporation. Vasodilation is the
process of vasodilation, vasoconstriction,
widening of blood vessels at the skin surface
shivering and sweating to maintain the body
to increase heat loss through the surface of
temperature constant (Figure 2.34).
the skin.

Sweating is another way of maintaining body

temperature during a hot season. Sweat,

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 Hypothalamu
s

Figure 2.34 The body temperature regulation

In controlling the body temperature, there are four mechanism of heat exchange between an
animal and its environment. These are radiation, evaporation, convection and conduction.

Inquiry activity 2.31 Investigating thermoregulation

Search from the library or the internet and discuss the following questions with a
classmate.
1. How vasodilation, vasoconstriction, shivering, sweating, hibernation and estivation
help to maintain normal level of the body temperature?
2. How does sweating cool the body? Relate this with the concepts in property of
water.
3. Take one of the heat exchange mechanisms (radiation, evaporation, convection and
conduction) and discuss in relation to the concept you learned in physics and
present it to the class.

The body structure of animals also helps to maintain their body temperature. For instance, large
ears in hot areas help to lose heat and cool their body, whereas small ears and fur in cold areas
help to minimize heat loss and keep their body warm. The size of the animals also affects regulation
of body temperature. As animals grow in size, their inside volume increases and the outside surface
area decreases. This affects the surface-area-to-volume ratio or the surface-to-volume ratio of
animals, which consequently affects heat loss. Look the following example (Figure 2.35).

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 Figure 2.35 As size increases the surface area: volume ratio decreases

For example, since the size of an elephant

Inquiry activity 2.32 Investigating is high, the surface area to volume ratio
thermoregulation becomes smaller than the surface area to
Form in groups of four and volume ratio of a rabbit. The greater the
1. Identify which of the information given in surface area-to-volume ratio an animal
this textbook (section 2.6.1) is has, the more heat loss it will have, and
physiological, behavioral and the smaller the surface area- to- volume
morphological methods of temperature ratio an animal has the less heat loss it will
regulation in animals and discus the have. The smaller the animal, the higher
difference between them. the surface area-to-volume ratio it will
2. What do you think the reason for peoples have, so it will have the higher heat loss.
living in desert/semi desert regions Example: a rabbit. On the other hand, the
commonly drink hot tea/drinks and wear larger the animal, the smaller the surface
different clothing styles in low and high area-to-volume ratio it will have, so it will
land areas? have the lower the heat loss. Example an
elephant.

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Inquiry activity 2.33 Examining effect of animals size on

thermoregulation
1. Why do smaller animals have higher surface area-to-volume ratio and loss the
higher amount of heat and larger animals have smaller surface area-to-volume
ratio and loss lower amount of heat?
2. What is the significance of surface area to volume ratio in controlling body
temperature?
Animals also maintain their body temperature by searching out cold or hot habitats that allow them
to alter its rate of heat loss or gain, making nests or digging burrows, huddling with conspecifics,
and in human like wearing clothes or turning on an air conditioner as human do.

2.6.2 Osmoregulation

Osmoregulation is a process that regulates the osmotic pressure of fluids and electrolytic balance in
organisms to maintain homeostasis. About 60% of the human body is composed of fluids.
Approximately 2/3 of our body’s water content is in our intracellular fluids and the remaining 1/3
forms our extracellular fluid. Extracellular fluid consists of the fluid between cells (interstitial fluid)
and the blood plasma. A disruption in the osmotic pressure can result in an imbalance in the
movement of water between them and hence alter the concentration of their electrolytes. Hence,
osmoregulation is important to balance osmotic pressure of fluids and electrolytes.

In humans and other animals, this process is brought about by osmoreceptors, which can detect
changes in osmotic pressure. Humans and most other warm-blooded organisms have
osmoreceptors in the hypothalamus, part of the brain and in the kidneys.

There are two major types of osmoregulation:

Osmoconformers: organisms that try to match the osmolarity of their body with their
surroundings are called osmoconformers. In other words, these organisms maintain the same
osmotic pressure inside the body as outside water. Examples are invertebrates like starfish, jellyfish
and lobsters.

Osmoregulators: organisms that actively regulate their osmotic pressure, independent of the
surrounding environment are called osmoregulators. Examples are many vertebrates, including
humans.

The kidney is the main organ responsible for osmoregulation in humans. When the water level in
the body is high, the kidney releases a large amount of hypotonic urine. When the water level is

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low, it retains water and produces a low amount of hypertonic urine. Thus, the kidneys maintain the
electrolytic balance of the body. The hypothalamus of the brain and Antidiuretic hormone (ADH)
secreted from pituitary gland controls osmoregulation (Figure 2.36).

Why does your urine sometimes become yellow and sometime not?

Figure 2.36 Osmoregulation in human

2.6.3 Blood Sugar Regulation

Glucose is the main source of energy for the normal functioning of our body systems including the
brain. The body requires volumes of glucose in order to generate energy during respiration. Hence,
the body regulates the availability of glucose in our body to maintain its concentration at constant
level in order to supply energy continuously.

Two hormones produced from pancreas are responsible for controlling the concentration of glucose
in the blood. These are insulin and glucagon.

 When blood glucose level is high and the glucagon level is low, more insulin is released by
the pancreas into the liver. Insulin promotes the conversion of glucose into glycogen so that
the excess glucose can be stored for a later use in the liver.

 When blood glucose level is low and glucagon level is high, more glucagon is released by
pancreas into the liver. Glucagon promotes the conversion of glycogen into glucose so that
the lack of glucose can be compensated for by the new supply of glucose.

Glycogen is stored in the liver and converted in to glucose when the glucose level decreases. The
effects of insulin and glucagon on the liver functions are as follows (Figure 2.37):

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