the.com/torpor
the body's strategic surrender, where life slows to a whisper to outlast the impossible
means A state of physical or mental inactivity, sluggishness, or dormancy — a deep slowing-down that borders on suspended animation.
from From Latin torpor, meaning numbness or stiffness, born from the verb torpere, "to be stiff or numb." It's a cousin of "torpid," and even of "torpedo" — which originally named the electric ray, a fish whose shock left its victims numb and motionless. The Latin root carries the chill of something gone still and unfeeling, which is exactly the sensation the word still delivers.
- heart rate
- hummingbirds drop from 1200 beats to 50 per minute
- not sleep
- animals must rouse from torpor just to actually sleep
- survival hack
- saves up to 90 percent of daily energy
- deep version
- prolonged torpor across seasons becomes true hibernation
- frozen frogs
- wood frogs torpor solid, then thaw back alive
ground squirrel hibernation — arctic ground squirrels drop body temperature to -2.9°c for 7+ months yearly in alaska
bear winter sleep — grizzly bears in yellowstone enter torpor for 5-7 months, reducing heart rate from 40 to 8 beats per minute
lemur torpor madagascar — fat-tailed dwarfs lemurs lower metabolism by 70% during dry season in western madagascar forests