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The extreme challenges of life in the polar regions require the animals who make their habitat there to make many adaptations.
FREE
This course includes
Hours of videos
12 hours, 38 minutes
Units & Quizzes
28
Unlimited Lifetime access
Access on mobile app
Certificate of Completion
This course, Animals at the extremes: polar biology, explores the polar climate and how animals like reindeer, polar bears, penguins, sea life and even humans manage to survive there. It looks at the adaptations to physiological proceses, the environmental effects on diet, activity and fecundity, and contrasts the strategies of aquatic and land-based animals in surviving in this extreme habitat.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- Define and use, or recognise definitions and applications of each of the bold terms
- Outline the special features of the polar regions as a habitat and list some contrasts between the Arctic and the Antarctic
- Describe some effects of daylength on feeding, fat deposition and reproduction in arctic animals
- Explain why the environmental controls of appetite, activity level and fecundity are essential adaptations to living at high latitudes and describe some physiological mechanisms involved
- Describe some adaptations of fuel metabolism and bone formation to dormancy in bears
Course Currilcum
- Introduction 00:03:00
- Learning outcomes 00:07:00
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- Preamble 00:25:00
- The polar environment 00:35:00
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- Nutrient budgeting 01:00:00
- Migration for breeding 00:35:00
- Environmental regulation of breeding 00:40:00
- Variable fecundity 00:15:00
- Summary of Sections 1 and 2 00:10:00
- Introduction 00:07:00
- Penguins 00:40:00
- Bears 00:07:00
- Dormancy in black and brown bears 01:00:00
- Insulation in terrestrial endotherms 01:00:00
- Insulation in aquatic endotherms 00:45:00
- Humans in polar regions 00:40:00
- Summary of Section 4 00:07:00
