Question

Make a hypothesis about how you expect metabolic rate (the rate at which animals burn organic molecules and consume oxygen) per body mass for animals to vary with body size. Make sure your answer applies to the rate per gram animal tissue (you must divide the amount for the whole animal by the mass of the animal).

Answer 1

The smaller the organism, the higher the metabolic rate. According to Kleiber's law , the metabolic rate of an animal is equal to the 3/4 power of the mass/weight of the animal.

For a cat 100g in weight, the metabolic rate would be 100^3/4 = 32.

The hypothesis would be that, the smaller the animal, the more needs it will have. Since it is small, it needs to have regular meals and this will lead to increase in metabolic rate. Also they need more energy to keep their body systems working. In addition, storage of fat is not much in species like birds.