December 30, at pm Reply. Mary Holland. December 31, at am Reply. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:. Email required Address never made public. Name required. Naturally Curious Email Subscription Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
Join 12, other followers. Donate to Naturally Curious. Click image to order from the publisher. Click here to order Naturally Curious Day by Day. Click on image to order from the publisher. Search Naturally Curious Blog Posts. Follow Following. Naturally Curious with Mary Holland Join 12, other followers.
Sign me up. However, T b and activity were correlated in all groups in present study. The explanation that high activity is to increase T b is not supported because the huddling voles had higher activity, but lower T b. The study involving 8 species showed that the temperature rhythm is not a byproduct of the activity rhythm, because T b during the active phase of the daily cycle was higher than T b during the inactive phase irrespective of the activity level prevailing during each phase Refinetti, Gebczynski and Taylor have reported that NST plays more important role than activity in shaping of circadian rhythm of T b.
In our study Cold-H voles did not increase the mass of iBAT, but rather increased their activity significantly by 1. Girardier et al. Thus activity-associated thermogenesis was the predominant thermogenic source for obese rats whereas such a correlation was not found in lean rats. In addition, balancing the activity-induced increase in T b with lower T b minima allows exercised animals in cold environments to benefit from both maintained activity and any energy savings afforded by lower T b s Glanville and Seebacher, Moreover, in the wild the Brandt's voles huddling in winter chamber need to move for feeding to a storage chambers located on the periphery of burrow system.
The increased activity in huddling voles may also be related to disturbance of other voles in order to occupy a better position in a huddle. Our study shows that huddling in Brandt's voles is an important cooperative behavior to reduce metabolic cost for thermoregulation.
The pronounced effects of huddling are achieved not only by a decrease in energetics but also involved decreases in NSTmax and iBAT mass, and importantly a decrease of core T b. The energetic benefits of huddling are likely more extensive than the cost for the increase of activity. Therefore, Brandt's voles can remain active for a longer period and maintain their body condition without increased energetic costs during cold exposure.
GS and Q-SC conducted the experiment. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
We are grateful to the reviewers for valuable comments and suggestions to our manuscript. We also thank all members of Animal Physiological Ecology Group, Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for valuable suggestion and discussion in the experiment. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U.
Journal List Front Physiol v. Front Physiol. Published online May Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Edited by: David C. De-Hua Wang nc. This article was submitted to Integrative Physiology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Physiology.
Received Nov 11; Accepted Apr The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author s and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.
Abstract Huddling as social thermoregulatory behavior is commonly used by small mammals to reduce heat loss and energy expenditure in the cold. Keywords: huddling, Brandt's voles, energetics, thermogenesis, core body temperature, activity. Introduction Winter is a stressful period for mammals when the majority ceases reproduction and allocates nutrients and fuel for the maintenance of the organism.
Materials and methods Experimental design and animals Adult female voles with a body mass of 28—70 g and about 4 months old from a breeding colony at Institute of Zoology, CAS were examined. Body composition All voles were sacrificed with CO 2 asphyxiation between and at end of the 4 weeks. Open in a separate window. Figure 1. Table 1 Body mass adjusted food intake, gross energy intake, digestible energy intake, and digestibility in groups of Brandt's voles under different T a and grouping conditions.
Wet thermal conductance C Cold-exposed groups either huddling or separated had higher group wet thermal conductance than cool-exposed groups [ F 1. Core T b and activity Both daytime and nighttime average T b s of voles fluctuated over the time of the experiment [ F Figure 2.
Figure 3. Table 2 Effects of T a and grouping condition on body composition of voles from different groups. Discussion Huddling is social thermoregulatory behavior important to the adaptation to low ambient temperature for reducing heat loss, energy expenditure and maintaining body temperature of animals to survive the cold Bustamante et al.
Changes in body mass, energy intake and body composition The voles of all groups increased body mass during the experiment regardless of T a or grouping condition. Changes in RMR, NSTmax and wet thermal conductance Endotherms living in cold environment maintain normothermic and energy balance through an activation of mechanisms that increase the heat production and conservation Liu et al.
Changes in core T b and activity Maintenance of high constant T b is an important feature of mammals and birds. Conclusion Our study shows that huddling in Brandt's voles is an important cooperative behavior to reduce metabolic cost for thermoregulation. Conflict of interest statement The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Acknowledgments We are grateful to the reviewers for valuable comments and suggestions to our manuscript. Footnotes Funding. References Andrews R. Bioenergetic benefits of huddling by deer mice Peromyscus maniculatus. Metabolic and thermoregulatory consequences of social behaviors between Microtus townsendii.
Brandt's Vole of Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar: Khaan Printing. Effects of temperature and social interactions on huddling behavior in Mus musculus. Body mass modulates huddling dynamics and body temperature profiles in rabbit pups. Endothermy and activity in vertebrates. Science , — Circadian metabolic and thermoregulatory patterns of red-billed woodhoopoes Phoeniculus purpureus : the influence of huddling.
Dynamic thermal balance in the leaf -eared mouse: the interplay among ambient temperature, body size, and behavior. Geometrical aspects of the energetic effectiveness of huddling in small mammals.
Acta Theriol. Thermal physiology and energetics in male desert hamsters Phodopus roborovskii during cold acclimation. Optimal housing temperatures for mice to mimic the thermal environment of humans: an experimental study. Body temperature and resting behavior of Greater snow goose goslings in the high Arctic. Condor , — Daily variation of body temperature, locomotor activity and maximum nonshivering thermogenesis in two species of small rodents.
Basking hamsters reduce resting metabolism, body temperature and energy costs during rewarming from torpor. Body temperature changes induced by huddling in breeding male emperor penguins. Private heat for public warmth: how huddling shapes individual thermogenic responses of rabbit pups. One for all and all for one: the energetic benefits of huddling in endotherms. Advantage to lower body temperatures for a small mammal Rattus fuscipes experiencing chronic cold.
Thermogenesis associated with spontaneous activity - an important component of thermoregulatory needs in rats. Behaviorally mediated, warm adaptation: a physiological strategy when mice behaviorally thermoregulate. Behavioral thermoregulatory responses of single- and group-housed mice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; , — The contributions of local heating and reducing exposed surface area to the energetic benefits of huddling by short-tailed field voles Microtus agrestis.
The influence of the social thermoregulation on the cold-adaptive growth of BAT in hairless and furred mice. Pflugers Arch. Student activities Comparing the temperature changes of a separate animal and an animal in a middle of huddled animals.
Which material protects us best in cold weather? How do elephants keep cool? A comprehensive curriculum. Purpose of the experiment. To compare the temperature changes of a separate animal and an animal in a middle of huddled animals. Background notes.
0コメント