These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Cool running: locomotor performance at low body temperature in mammals.
    Author: Rojas AD, Körtner G, Geiser F.
    Journal: Biol Lett; 2012 Oct 23; 8(5):868-70. PubMed ID: 22675136.
    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.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]