Torpor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Torpor is a state of regulated hypothermia in an endotherm lasting for periods ranging from just a few hours to several months. Animals that go through torpor include small birds like hummingbirds and some small mammals such as bats. During the active part of their day, these animals maintain normal body temperature and activity levels, but their body temperature drops during a portion of the day (usually night) to conserve energy. Torpor is often used to help animals survive in a cold climate, since it allows the organism to save the amount of energy that would normally be used to maintain a high body temperature. Some animals such as groundhogs, chipmunks, and jumping mice enter this state of hibernation for the duration of the winter. Lungfish switch to the torpor state if their pool dries out. Tenrecidae (common name tenrecs) switch to the torpor state if food is scarce during the summer (in Madagascar). Black bears, although often thought of as hibernators, do not truly enter a state of torpor. While their body temperatures lower along with respiration and heartbeat, they do not decrease as significantly as most animals in a state of torpor. Still, there is much debate about this within the scientific community, some feel that black bears are true hibernators that employ a more advanced form of hibernation.
Torpor is alternately used as a reference to any non-physiological state of inactivity. As an example, recently naturalists have learned that the female crocodile enters a deep torpor without aggression during their short egg laying period. This definition is also commonly used to describe the "chill out" effects of a number of psychotropic drugs, such as psychedelic mushrooms and LSD.
Torpor is also a term used in White Wolf's World of Darkness Vampire system to describe the result of a vampire being staked through the heart. The effects of this torpor are similar to paralysis.
