September 16, 2022
Hot and cold hummingbirds: Genes that allow cold endotherms to exist
Dr. Anusha Shankar
Rose Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Abstract
Hummingbirds live fast. They have among the highest metabolic rates of all vertebrates, and must eat frequently to stay alive. I am excited to share with you some of the strategies they use to manage their time and their energy during the day. As a hummingbird, would you maximize energy gain or minimize energy loss, and how would your strategy change based on changing environmental conditions? And then, what do you do at night, when you do not have access to food? Hummingbirds save energy by entering the hibernation-like state of torpor. They manage to get very cold (~50°F/10°C) and slow their metabolism down. How do they do that and still stay alive? This is what I am currently working on finding out.
Biosketch
Anusha Shankar studies hummingbirds as a Rose Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. She is fascinated by hummingbirds’ ability to use a hibernation-like state called torpor to save energy at night. She is investigating how they can get cold (50°F) and rewarm safely every night, without damaging organs like their hearts and brains. She uses infrared videography, respirometry, and transcriptomics on wild-caught birds to evaluate torpor at ecological, physiological and genomic scales. Anusha is a Leading Edge Fellow 2022, Jackson Wild Media Lab Fellow 2021, and National Geographic Explorer and Young Leader. She loves mentoring students, reading fiction, and dancing salsa, bachata, and swing.