Fennec Foxes Stay Cool with Large Ears and Fur

Fennec foxes are the smallest species of Canid, and inhabit the desert of North Africa. They are about 40cm in length, but their large ears are about 15cm, which makes them seem out of proportion for their body size. However these ears are perfectly sized because they have been adapted to the fox’s desert conditions. You may remember thinking that your ears feel especially cold during the winter. This is because ears contain many blood vessels near the surface of the skin, which allows heat to easily dissipate from the body. As such, Arctic foxes have small ears because they live in a very cold region, whereas fennec foxes, because they live in hot desert conditions, have large ears that release heat through the many capillaries that run near the surface of the ears, which prevents a rise in body temperature. The fox has cream colored fur to reduce heat absorption, and fur-covered soles, which enables them to walk easily on the hot desert sand. You can imagine how painful it is to walk barefoot on the beach on a hot day; the fennec foxes have adapted to this by creating their own “sandals” to wear (the fur covering their soles) as protection from hot desert conditions.

Resouce/Energy/Information Collection & Storage:: Heat insulation

Defense/Stability:: Temperature control

Other

During heart surgery, artificial heart-lung machines take over heart functions and maintain the body’s blood circulation. These heart-lung machines use heat exchangers to adjust body temperature. The mechanism of fennec foxes’ structural body-temperature adjustment is quite simple and can be used to develop new, simple heat exchangers. Fennec foxes are mammals, same as us humans, and are homeotherms, meaning they regulate their body temperatures by adjusting blood flows according to changes in surrounding temperatures. When it is hot, homeotherms increase blood flows in order to reduce rises in body temperature. The foxes also reduce rises in body temperature by increasing blood flows to the ears, enabling them to rapidly dissipate heat through their large ears.

Query	Affected	Num. rows	Took (ms)	Actions
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `contents`	16	16	11	maybe slow
SELECT CHARACTER_SET_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLLATIONS WHERE COLLATION_NAME= 'utf8_general_ci';	1	1	1
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `users`	10	10	10
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `groups`	4	4	2	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `permissions`	5	5	2	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `groups_permissions`	3	3	10	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `groups_users`	3	3	2	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `contents_searches`	6	6	2	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `attachments`	11	11	3	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `attachments_revs`	13	13	3	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `contents_related_items`	5	5	3	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `related_items`	6	6	2	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `contents_related_items_revs`	8	8	10	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `contents_tags`	5	5	2	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `tags`	7	7	2	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `tag_groups`	6	6	10	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `contents_tags_revs`	7	7	2	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `contents_revs`	18	18	3	maybe slow
SELECT `Content`.`id`, `Content`.`user_id`, `Content`.`last_edit_user_id`, `Content`.`post_date`, `Content`.`post_date_year`, `Content`.`post_date_month`, `Content`.`post_date_day`, `Content`.`title`, `Content`.`title_en`, `Content`.`content`, `Content`.`plain_content`, `Content`.`page_view`, `Content`.`flag`, `Content`.`mod_count`, `Content`.`created`, `Content`.`modified` FROM `contents` AS `Content` WHERE `id` = 161 LIMIT 1	1	1	0
SELECT `Attachment`.`file_name`, `Attachment`.`dir`, `Attachment`.`model`, `Attachment`.`foreign_key` FROM `attachments` AS `Attachment` WHERE `file_name` <> 'default.jpg' AND `Attachment`.`foreign_key` = (161)	1	1	0
SELECT `ContentsRelatedItem`.`content`, `ContentsRelatedItem`.`related_item_id`, `ContentsRelatedItem`.`content_id` FROM `contents_related_items` AS `ContentsRelatedItem` WHERE `ContentsRelatedItem`.`content_id` = (161)	11	11	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 1	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 2	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 4	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 6	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 7	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 8	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 9	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 9	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 9	1	1	8	maybe slow
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 11	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 12	1	1	0
SELECT `ContentsTag`.`id`, `ContentsTag`.`tag_group_id`, `ContentsTag`.`mod_count`, `ContentsTag`.`tag_id`, `ContentsTag`.`content_id` FROM `contents_tags` AS `ContentsTag` WHERE `ContentsTag`.`content_id` = (161)	3	3	0
SELECT `Tag`.`name`, `Tag`.`comment`, `Tag`.`tag_group_id` FROM `tags` AS `Tag` WHERE `Tag`.`id` = 5	1	1	0
SELECT `TagGroup`.`code`, `TagGroup`.`name` FROM `tag_groups` AS `TagGroup` WHERE `TagGroup`.`id` = 1	1	1	0
SELECT `Tag`.`name`, `Tag`.`comment`, `Tag`.`tag_group_id` FROM `tags` AS `Tag` WHERE `Tag`.`id` = 79	1	1	0
SELECT `TagGroup`.`code`, `TagGroup`.`name` FROM `tag_groups` AS `TagGroup` WHERE `TagGroup`.`id` = 6	1	1	0
SELECT `Tag`.`name`, `Tag`.`comment`, `Tag`.`tag_group_id` FROM `tags` AS `Tag` WHERE `Tag`.`id` = 175	1	1	0
SELECT `TagGroup`.`code`, `TagGroup`.`name` FROM `tag_groups` AS `TagGroup` WHERE `TagGroup`.`id` = 7	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`id`, `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name`, `RelatedItem`.`created`, `RelatedItem`.`modified`, `RelatedItem`.`flag` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `code` = 'function' LIMIT 1	1	1	0
SELECT `Content`.`id`, `Content`.`title`, `Content`.`title_en` FROM `contents` AS `Content` WHERE id = (NULL) ORDER BY `id` desc	0	0	0

Message	Memory use
Component intitailization	6.79 MB
Controller action start	6.83 MB
Controller render start	6.91 MB
View render complete	7.93 MB

Message	Time in ms	Graph
Core Processing (Derived)	377.03
Component initialization and startup	17.74
Controller action	57.18
Render Controller Action	77.18
» Rendering View	63.51
» » Rendering APP/views/contents/view.ctp	30.15
» » Rendering APP/views/layouts/default.ctp	22.44
» » » Rendering APP/views/elements/header.ctp	1.87
» » » Rendering APP/views/elements/content_sidebar.ctp	0.40
» » » Rendering APP/views/elements/footer.ctp	0.54

Fennec Foxes Stay Cool with Large Ears and Fur

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