{"id":326,"date":"2020-09-20T07:05:11","date_gmt":"2020-09-20T07:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryonicsrevival.com\/?p=326"},"modified":"2020-09-20T07:05:11","modified_gmt":"2020-09-20T07:05:11","slug":"this-hummingbird-survives-cold-nights-by-nearly-freezing-itself-solid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonathandespres.com\/cryonicsrevival\/2020\/09\/20\/this-hummingbird-survives-cold-nights-by-nearly-freezing-itself-solid\/","title":{"rendered":"This hummingbird survives cold nights by nearly freezing itself solid"},"content":{"rendered":"

The high Andes mountains of Peru are a hummingbird\u2019s paradise, rich in wildflower nectar and low in predators. But there\u2019s one problem: the cold.<\/p>\n

Nighttime temperatures often dip below freezing in these rainy tropical highlands. How does a six-gram bird that needs nectar from 500 flowers a day just to survive get enough extra energy to keep itself warm all night?<\/p>\n

Instead, as temperatures drop with the sun, these hummingbirds enter a state of suspended animation known as torpor. One species, the black metaltail (Metallura phoebe), chills to 3.26\u00b0 Celsius, the coldest body temperature ever recorded in a bird or non-hibernating mammal, researchers report September 9 in Biology Letters.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/hummingbirds-black-metaltail-cold-torpor<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"