Heterothermy was proposed to be a key thermophysiological adaptation for some ungulate living in arid bioclimate, where body heat is stored during the hot diurnal time, with a consequent rise in body temperature, to reduce insensible evaporative heat loss.
Notably, the use of heterothermy by gazelles resulted in storage of 109.65 and 31.92 kJ/day/animal in summer and winter, respectively.
Despite late onset of the heterothermal period in fall, juvenile male thirteen-lined ground squirrels terminated
heterothermy, on average, 3.5 wk before juvenile females in spring, and they thus spent, on average, about 6.5 wk less time in the heterothermal period (149.5 d versus 193.5 d, respectively-Table 1).
Scientists at the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology (FIWI) at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna investigated whether elephants make use of
heterothermy.
Key words: body temperature; Coraciiformes; energetics;
heterothermy; hypothermia; metabolic rate; Puerto Rican Tody; thermoregulation; Todus mexicanus; torpor.
