system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
When someone dies of exposure, what exactly kills them? Do other animals die from exposure?
gpt
they probably die from hypothermia, a deficit between the body heat that an organism can generate and the rate that heat is lost by the body. any organism can be affected by exposure, but humans are particularly susceptible to it since many of us live in environments for which we are not particularly well suited. i imagine even a polar bear could die from exposure, despite the fact it is incredibly well adapted to its environment, if it cannot consume enough calories to maintain its body temperature. that being said, for animals that are living in their natural environment, death by predation most likely happens before death by exposure, because the weakness that causes a net deficit in energy makes an animal more vulnerable to predation (an exception, of course, being apex predators such as polar bears, that have no predators).

Edit: in a broad sense death by exposure could also include such things as death from heat stroke, dehydration or any lack of basic human needs (adequate food, water, shelter, clothing). this of course would also be less common for animals than for humans.