How do animals respond to temperature changes?

Sweating in warmth and shivering in cold change an animal's energy balance, helping counter a temperature change. Thermoregulation combines heat production, heat exchange and behavior. The mammal example follows feedback between sensing and response; different animals use different combinations of these processes.

Sensors in the body and skin provide temperature information to nervous control systems. In a warming mammal, responses can increase energy transfer outward. In humans, sweat evaporating from skin takes energy with it, cooling the surface. Simply making liquid sweat is not the whole mechanism: if humid air prevents much evaporation, this cooling route is less effective.

In a cooling mammal, shivering repeatedly contracts muscles. Their chemical processes release energy, much of it as heat, helping counter the fall in temperature. Changing blood flow near the skin can alter exchange with the surroundings, while sheltering or curling up changes exposure. Different species use different combinations. Each response changes an energy input or output; none simply sets the body instantly to a target number.

Negative feedback names the opposing direction: the response tends to counter the original temperature departure, rather than making 'negative' mean harmful. Its strength matters as well as its direction. Extreme surroundings can supply or remove heat faster than responses compensate, so regulation emerges from competing energy transfers rather than an instant reset to a target.