Cool running: locomotor performance at low body temperature in mammals

Title
Cool running: locomotor performance at low body temperature in mammals
Publication Date
2012
Author(s)
Rojas, Ana Daniella
Koertner, Gerhard
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8230-0709
Email: gkoertne@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:gkoertne
Geiser, Fritz
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7621-5049
Email: fgeiser@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:fgeiser
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
The Royal Society Publishing
Place of publication
United Kingdom
DOI
10.1098/rsbl.2012.0269
UNE publication id
une:12141
Abstract
Mammalian torpor saves enormous amounts of energy, but a widely assumed cost of torpor is immobility and therefore vulnerability to predators. Contrary to this assumption, some small marsupial mammals in the wild move while torpid at low body temperatures to basking sites, thereby minimizing energy expenditure during arousal. Hence, we quantified how mammalian locomotor performance is affected by body temperature. The three small marsupial species tested, known to use torpor and basking in the wild, could move while torpid at body temperatures as low as 14.8-17.9°C. Speed was a sigmoid function of body temperature, but body temperature effects on running speed were greater than those in an ectothermic lizard used for comparison. We provide the first quantitative data of movement at low body temperature in mammals, which have survival implications for wild heterothermic mammals, as directional movement at low body temperature permits both basking and predator avoidance.
Link
Citation
Biology Letters, 8(5), p. 868-870
ISSN
1744-957X
1744-9561
Start page
868
End page
870

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