In the polar regions small sized animals are rare What is the reason behind this ........

Environment and Ecology (Easy) Biodiversity

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In the polar regions, small-sized animals are rare. What is the reason behind this?

Small animals have less fur than largesized animals.

The lack of vegetation in the polar regions is a challenge as small animals are primarily herbivorous.

Small sized animals easily fall prey to their larger counterparts and thus their population cannot flourish.

Small-sized animals have a larger surface area relative to their volume and thus they tend to lose heat very fast.

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Explanation:

An overwhelming majority of animals and nearly all plants cannot maintain a constant internal environment. Their body temperature changes with the ambient temperature. In aquatic animals, the osmotic concentration of the body fluids changes with that of the ambient water osmotic concentration.

These animals and plants are simply conformers. Thermoregulation is energetically expensive for many organisms. This is particularly true for small animals like shrews and hummingbirds. Heat loss or heat gain is a function of surface area. Since small animals have a larger surface area relative to their volume, they tend to lose body heat very fast when it is cold outside; then they have to expend much energy to generate body heat through metabolism. This is the main reason why very small animals are rarely found in polar regions. Hence option (d) is the correct answer.