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Cold-blooded organisms, more technically known as poikilothermic, are animals that have no internal metabolic mechanism for regulating their body temperatures. Some (usually smaller) animals have unregulated temperatures, but most have sophisticated physiological and behavioral techniques for obtaining their desired core body temeprature from the environment. Cold-blooded animals are often referred to as ectotherms.

Ectotherms depend largely on external sources of heat, such as solar radiation. As the environmental temperature increases, the animal's metabolic rate will increase. Lizards, fish, and amphibians are examples of ectotherms. Whereas an endotherm, or warm-blooded animal will use up to 98% of its energy for heat production, an ectotherm has all this energy available for activity, growth, repair and reproduction.

Types of temperature control

Examples of this temperature control include:

  • Snakes and lizards sunning themselves on rocks.
  • Desert animals burrowing beneath the sand during the day.

Many homeothermic, or warm-blooded, animals also make use of these techniques at times. For example, all animals are at risk of overheating on hot days in the desert sun , and most homeothermic animals can shiver.


Because their metabolism is so variable, poikilothermic animals do not easily support complex, high-energy organ systems such as brains or wings. Some of the most complex adaptations known involve poikilotherms with such organ systems. One example is the swimming muscles of Tuna, which are warmed by a heat exchanger. In general, poikilothermic animals do not use their metabolisms to heat or cool themselves. For the same body weight poikilotherms need 1/3 to 1/10 of the energy of homeotherms. They therefore eat only 1/3 to 1/10 of the food needed by homeothermic animals.

Ecological niches

It is comparatively easy for a poikilotherm to accumulate enough energy to reproduce. Poikilotherms in the same ecological niche often have much shorter generations than homeotherms: weeks rather than years.




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