Last Friday, my teammates and I watched a livestream on YouTube of Anusha Shankar, who is a biologist and has studied how hummingbirds enter a state of torpor, where the animal becomes physically inactive in order to minimize energy usage. I found this extremely interesting because I have only heard of animals hibernating during the winter season to not consume as much energy, but never of the state of torpor. Hummingbirds get energy from nectar in plants, but due to their small size they are constantly spending the energy that they consume, and can die within 2 hours if they do not have enough food. In order to save energy, they enter a state of torpor where their body temperature lowers and their brain becomes extremely inactive.
In addition to studying hummingbirds, Shankar currently lives in Alaska and studies Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), which analyzes the effects of the amount of daylight overtime in relation to people’s moods. I found this very interesting because I was curious to find out how the weather affects people’s moods. I am still curious to find out whether or not having family that has lived in places with little daylight for generations has an impact on how you respond to the limited amount of light.
I am so thankful to have the opportunity to participate in engaging activities such as this livestream because we are provided with even more ways of learning that we haven’t experienced before. If you would like to watch the livestream that my teammates and I viewed, you can click the link down below. I have also included educational videos on the state of torpor and Seasonal Affective Disorder, so check them out!
AP Biology with Kristen 
Kristen, I love the videos you included in this post. It was a fascinating talk!
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Torpor is so interesting! It’s almost like the bird returns back from the “dead”. I really liked your blog post, and the livestream seemed like it was very fun! I hope your class was able to ask her a lot of questions.
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