Answer: The correct option is A (uses metabolic energy to regulate its body temperature and maintains a relatively constant body temperature).
Explanation:
HOMOEOTHERMIC animals are also called endothermic animals. They are the warm blooded animals which uses heat energy generated metabolically to regulate and maintain a relatively constant body temperature. Examples of animals that are endothermic include the birds and mammals.
The temperature which they maintain is deep inside the body and not the skin temperature.
Also the temperature of a body is affected by the heat it gains and losses. The body gains heat mainly:
--> by absorbing it from its surroundings
--> from the heat released during the catabolic reaction that occur all the time in the body cells.
--> by conduction, convection and radiation from the surface of the body
--> through evaporation, especially of sweat and
--> in the air that is exhaled and urine that leaves the body.
Under normal circumstances, the heat the body gains is balanced by the heat it loses. A RISE in body temperature stimulates the following processes to get rid of excess body heat:
--> A decrease in metabolic rate: the body slows down its activities to decrease the metabolic rate. This reduces the heat released by metabolic reactions, hence minimizing heat production within the body.
A FALL in body temperature stimulates the following processes to produce and conserve heat:
--> increasing metabolic rate: The body increases its metabolic rate, especially that of the liver, to produce more heat
