Describing animals that generate heat internally through metabolic processes to maintain a relatively constant body temperature, such as mammals and birds. They can remain active across a wide range of environmental temperatures.
From Greek 'endon' meaning within and 'thermos' meaning heat, literally 'inside heat.' The term replaced 'warm-blooded' in scientific literature to more precisely describe the internal heat generation mechanism.
Endothermic animals pay a huge energy cost for temperature control - they need about 10 times more food than similarly-sized ectothermic animals! However, this allows them to be active in polar regions and at night when ectothermic animals become sluggish.
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