Final answer:
Estivation is a dormancy state that occurs in response to hot, dry conditions where animals like lizards decrease their activity and metabolism to conserve water and energy. The lizard's behavior changes to being inactive typically in sheltered areas to reduce water loss. This state helps them survive until conditions improve.
Step-by-step explanation:
Organisms enter states of dormancy to survive environmental stressors such as extreme temperatures and scarcity of resources. Estivation is a type of dormancy characterized by an organism entering a state of desiccation to endure hot and dry conditions. In estivation, animals like lizards significantly decrease their metabolic rate to conserve energy and water resources.
During estivation, the behavior of a lizard would change drastically in response to high temperatures and water scarcity. The lizard would likely become less active or completely inactive, seek shelter to minimize water loss and avoid the heat, and its metabolic processes such as growth, digestion, and reproduction would slow down considerably or stop entirely. This state of reduced physiological activity helps the lizard to preserve its vital body fluids and energy until favorable conditions return.
Torpor is a similar state of decreased physiological activity that can occur daily in some animals, such as bats and hummingbirds, to conserve energy during less favorable temperature periods. Hibernation is another form of long-term torpor used by animals to survive cold climates by decreasing their metabolism and conserving energy when food is scarce during winter months.