Chapter 18
Bat Thermo-Regulation
The baby bat
Screamed out in fright,
‘Turn on the dark,
I’m afraid of the light.”
(Shel Silverstein)
18.1 Bat Thermo-Regulation Model
Objects of a particular temperature, surrounded by a cooler environment, tend to
lose heat to their surrounding. Under the assumption that the environment is large in
comparison to the object, the rate of change in the temperature of the object is
determined by the difference between the object’s temperature and the ambient
temperature. The ambient temperature becomes the target final temperature of the
object.
In this chapter we model the thermo-regulatory process of a bat. The bat loses
heat based on Newton’s law of cooling. This law states that the rate of change of a
body’s temperature is linearly proportional to the temperature difference between
the object and the environment. In our case, heat loss by a bat is
HEAT LOSS ¼ K Ã BODY TEMP À AMBIENT TEMPERATURE
ð
Þ ð 18:1Þ
Unlike the standard setting for Newtonian cooling of inanimate objects, bats are
able to influence the cooling coefficient K by adjusting their fur, rolling into a more
nearly spherical shape (minimum surface per unit volume), and crowding. Thus, the
cooling coefficient is a function of temperature. The relationship between the
A save-disabled version of STELLA and the computer models of this book are available at
www.iseesystems.com/modelingdynamicbiologicalsystems.
B. Hannon and M. Ruth, Modeling Dynamic Biological Systems,
Modeling Dynamic Systems, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05615-9_18,
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014
147
Bat Thermo-Regulation
The baby bat
Screamed out in fright,
‘Turn on the dark,
I’m afraid of the light.”
(Shel Silverstein)
18.1 Bat Thermo-Regulation Model
Objects of a particular temperature, surrounded by a cooler environment, tend to
lose heat to their surrounding. Under the assumption that the environment is large in
comparison to the object, the rate of change in the temperature of the object is
determined by the difference between the object’s temperature and the ambient
temperature. The ambient temperature becomes the target final temperature of the
object.
In this chapter we model the thermo-regulatory process of a bat. The bat loses
heat based on Newton’s law of cooling. This law states that the rate of change of a
body’s temperature is linearly proportional to the temperature difference between
the object and the environment. In our case, heat loss by a bat is
HEAT LOSS ¼ K Ã BODY TEMP À AMBIENT TEMPERATURE
ð
Þ ð 18:1Þ
Unlike the standard setting for Newtonian cooling of inanimate objects, bats are
able to influence the cooling coefficient K by adjusting their fur, rolling into a more
nearly spherical shape (minimum surface per unit volume), and crowding. Thus, the
cooling coefficient is a function of temperature. The relationship between the
A save-disabled version of STELLA and the computer models of this book are available at
www.iseesystems.com/modelingdynamicbiologicalsystems.
B. Hannon and M. Ruth, Modeling Dynamic Biological Systems,
Modeling Dynamic Systems, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05615-9_18,
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014
147