
The counter current heat exchange system- the ducks legs, dolphins flippers and penguins feet, are all susceptible to heat loss particularly in cold weather so these structures, their arteries and veins are organised to facilitate counter current exchange, meaning they are close to each other.
What animals use countercurrent exchange?
Arctic foxes and wolves- use countercurrent exchange to heat and cool their feet so that they don't freeze in the ices and snow. Likewise, do humans use countercurrent exchange? Many animals (including humans) have another way to conserve heat.
What is countercurrent exchange of heat in animals?
Countercurrent exchange of heat in organisms. As the (cold) blood flows back up from the paws through the veins, it picks up heat from the blood flowing in the opposite direction, so that it returns to the torso in a warm state, allowing the fox to maintain a comfortable temperature, without losing it to the snow.
What is a countercurrent heat exchanger?
Many animals (including humans) have another way to conserve heat. As warm blood passes down the arteries, the blood gives up some of its heat to the colder blood returning from the extremities in these veins. Such a mechanism is called a countercurrent heat exchanger. In respect to this, what does countercurrent exchange mean?
What is The bibcode for countercurrent systems in animals?
"Countercurrent systems in animals". Scientific American. 244 (May): 118–128. Bibcode: 1981SciAm.244e.118S. doi: 10.1038/scientificamerican0581-118. PMID 7233149. ^ a b c Williams, Peter L.; Warwick, Roger; Dyson, Mary; Bannister, Lawrence H. (1989).

Which animals use countercurrent exchange?
Arctic foxes and wolves- use countercurrent exchange to heat and cool their feet so that they don't freeze in the ices and snow. Jackrabbits- use this exchange in their ears to help cool their bodies.
Do mammals use countercurrent heat exchange?
Some mammals, dogs for example, have a countercurrent heat exchanger located between the carotid arteries and the vessels that distribute blood to the brain. This heat exchanger transfers some of the heat of the arterial blood to the relatively cool venous blood returning from the nose and mouth.
What is countercurrent heat exchange system in animals?
Countercurrent Heat Exchange. Blood flowing from the body core to the periphery (like the legs & feet) carries heat that can be readily lost through the skin. However, the vein returning blood to the body core lies alongside the artery taking blood to the feet.
Do birds have countercurrent exchange?
Birds also have a countercurrent heat exchange system in their legs and feet—the blood vessels going to and from the feet are very close together, so blood flowing back to the body is warmed by blood flowing to the feet.
Do Endotherms use countercurrent heat exchange?
The countercurrent adaption is found in many animals, including dolphins, sharks, bony fish, bees, and hummingbirds. In contrast, similar adaptations can help cool endotherms when needed, such as dolphin flukes and elephant ears. Some ectothermic animals use changes in their behavior to help regulate body temperature.
Does tuna use countercurrent exchange?
Tuna have a special system of countercurrent exchange that helps to retain body heat (see SF Fig. 4.7). However, tuna cannot keep its body at a fixed temperature the way mammals can.
What is countercurrent exchange example?
An example of countercurrent heat exchange occurs in the feet of penguins, in which heat from blood in the arteries supplying the feet is transferred to blood returning to the body's core in veins that lie close to these arteries. This helps to maintain the core temperature in freezing conditions.
What is countercurrent flow in fish?
Counter current exchange is the mechanism in which oxygen enters the blood in fish. Blood flows in the opposite direction to the water that flows over the fish's gills. Fish gills have gill filaments and these filaments have protrusions called lamellae which the water flows over.
Which animal will be able to control its body temperature the best?
Mammals and birds are called endotherms. An endotherm is an animal that can control its internal body temperature. Endotherms' body temperature is usually much warmer than the temperature of the environment and usually stays about the same temperature.
How come seagulls dont freeze?
Heat is transferred from the warm arteries to the cool veins. This countercurrent heat exchange system is very efficient at maintaining heat in the core. Periodic increases in blood flow allow a little heat to reach the foot and prevent it from freezing.
How do geese feet not freeze?
These animals rely on a vascular system designed with this in mind. The arteries and veins in the legs and feet of these birds are close together, which allows the blood to be warmed and cooled quickly, the Smithsonian reports.
How do vultures keep cool during hot weather?
Kids love this one! Turkey vultures urinate down their legs. This is called urohydrosis and it helps to cool the vultures off during hot weather. When the fluids in the waste evaporate, it cools the blood vessels in the feet, therefore lowering the overall temperature of the bird.
What animals use countercurrent exchange?
Here are some examples: Fish gills-exchange oxygen from the high oxygen environment of the water around them into the low oxygen environment of their bloodstream. Arctic foxes and wolves- use countercurrent exchange to heat and cool their feet so that they don't freeze in the ices and snow. Subsequently, question is, do humans use countercurrent ...
What is the purpose of a countercurrent heat exchanger?
Many birds and mammals have countercurrent heat exchangers, circulatory adaptations that allow heat to be transferred from blood vessels containing warmer blood to those containing cooler blood. Click to see full answer.
How do animals conserve heat?
As warm blood passes down the arteries, the blood gives up some of its heat to the colder blood returning from the extremities in these veins. Such a mechanism is called a countercurrent heat exchanger.
What is a cocurrent heat exchanger?
A cocurrent heat exchanger is an example of a cocurrent flow exchange mechanism.#N#Two tubes have a liquid flowing in the same direction. One starts off hot at 60 °C, the second cold at 20 °C. A thermoconductive membrane or an open section allows heat transfer between the two flows.
What is countercurrent exchange?
Countercurrent exchange is a mechanism occurring in nature and mimicked in industry and engineering, in which there is a crossover of some property, usually heat or some chemical, between two flowing bodies flowing in opposite directions to each other. The flowing bodies can be liquids, gases, or even solid powders, or any combination of those.
What is countercurrent chromatography?
Countercurrent Chromatography is a method of separation, that is based on the differential partitioning of analytes between two immiscible liquids using countercurrent or cocurrent flow. Evolving from Craig's Countercurrent Distribution (CCD), the most widely used term and abbreviation is CounterCurrent Chromatography or CCC, in particular when using hydrodynamic CCC instruments. The term partition chromatography is largely a synonymous and predominantly used for hydrostatic CCC instruments.
What is the circuit of fluid in the loop of henle?
A circuit of fluid in the Loop of Henle —an important part of the kidneys allows for gradual buildup of the concentration of urine in the kidneys, by using active transport on the exit ing nephrons (tubules carrying liquid in the process of gradually concentrating the urea). The active transport pumps need only to overcome a constant and low gradient of concentration, because of the countercurrent multiplier mechanism
What is countercurrent multiplication?
A countercurrent multiplication loop is a system where fluid flows in a loop so that the entrance and exit are at similar low concentration of a dissolved substance but at the far end of the loop there is a high concentration of that substance.
Where are countercurrent exchange circuits found?
Countercurrent exchange circuits or loops are found extensively in nature, specifically in biologic systems. In vertebrates, they are called a rete mirabile, originally the name of an organ in fish gills for absorbing oxygen from the water. It is mimicked in industrial systems. Countercurrent exchange is a key concept in chemical engineering ...
Why is the maximum amount of heat or mass transfer that can be obtained is higher with countercurrent than co-current?
The maximum amount of heat or mass transfer that can be obtained is higher with countercurrent than co-current (parallel) exchange because countercurrent maintains a slowly declining difference or gradient (usually temperature or concentration difference).
What are the four ways of heat exchange?
The body of an organism will exchange heat with its environment all the time, it is determined via four physical processes (see image 4): Conduction. Convection. Radiation.
What are some examples of heat loss?
The only example for heat loss is if an animals is wet and it is the sun the water will evaporate from its body cooling it down this is used by many animals including humans on a hot they will swim in the sea and then the water left on them will evaporate reducing their temperature further.
What are the structures that are vulnerable to heat loss?
The counter current heat exchange system- the ducks legs, dolphins flippers and penguins feet, are all susceptible to heat loss particularly in cold weather so these structures, their arteries and veins are organised to facilitate counter current exchange, meaning they are close to each other.
What happens if the temperature is too high for sheep?
If the temperature is to high the sheep will begin to pant, this will then increase the heat production as the muscles will be contracting , if the rise in body temperature continues, enzymes in the animals body will cease to function and death will quickly ensue.
What is the normal temperature of a sheep?
Radiation is an important factor to consider when managing a herd of sheep, the normal body temp of a sheep is around 102.3 o Fbut can hover at around100.9-103.8 °F, this is classed as the thermal neutral zone of the animal, and for the health of the animal this must be maintained.

Overview
Countercurrent exchange is a mechanism occurring in nature and mimicked in industry and engineering, in which there is a crossover of some property, usually heat or some chemical, between two flowing bodies flowing in opposite directions to each other. The flowing bodies can be liquids, gases, or even solid powders, or any combination of those. For example, in a distillation column, the vapors bubble up through the downward flowing liquid while exchanging both heat …
Three current exchange systems
Countercurrent exchange and cocurrent exchange are two mechanisms used to transfer some property of a fluid from one flowing current of fluid to another across a barrier allowing one way flow of the property between them. The property transferred could be heat, concentration of a chemical substance, or other properties of the flow.
Countercurrent exchange in biological systems
Countercurrent exchange in biological systems occurred following the discovery of countercurrent multiplication systems by Werner Kuhn.
Countercurrent exchange is used extensively in biological systems for a wide variety of purposes. For example, fish use it in their gills to transfer oxygen from the surrounding water into their blood, and birds use a countercurrent heat exch…
Countercurrent exchange in industry and scientific research
Countercurrent Chromatography is a method of separation, that is based on the differential partitioning of analytes between two immiscible liquids using countercurrent or cocurrent flow. Evolving from Craig's Countercurrent Distribution (CCD), the most widely used term and abbreviation is CounterCurrent Chromatography or CCC, in particular when using hydrodynam…
See also
• Anagama kiln
• Bidirectional traffic
• Economizer
• Regenerative heat exchanger
• Countercurrent multiplier
External links
• Countercurrent multiplier animation from Colorado University.
• Research about elephant seals using countercurrent heat exchange to keep heat from leaving their body while breathing out, during hibernation.
• Patent for a snow mask with a removable countercurrent exchange module which keeps the warmth from leaving the mask when breathing out.