Body temperature patterns and rhythmicity in free-ranging subterranean Damaraland mole-rats, Fukomys damarensis

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dc.contributor.author Streicher, Sonja
dc.contributor.author Boyles, Justin G.
dc.contributor.author Oosthuizen, Maria Kathleen
dc.contributor.author Bennett, Nigel Charles
dc.contributor.editor Sakamoto, Kentaro Q.
dc.date.accessioned 2011-11-21T10:28:49Z
dc.date.available 2011-11-21T10:28:49Z
dc.date.issued 2011-10-18
dc.description.abstract Body temperature (Tb) is an important physiological component that affects endotherms from the cellular to whole organism level, but measurements of Tb in the field have been noticeably skewed towards heterothermic species and seasonal comparisons are largely lacking. Thus, we investigated patterns of Tb patterns in a homeothermic, free-ranging small mammal, the Damaraland mole-rat (Fukomys damarensis) during both the summer and winter. Variation in Tb was significantly greater during winter than summer, and greater among males than females. Interestingly, body mass had only a small effect on variation in Tb and there was no consistent pattern relating ambient temperature to variation in Tb. Generally speaking, it appears that variation in Tb patterns varies between seasons in much the same way as in heterothermic species, just to a lesser degree. Both cosinor analysis and Fast Fourier Transform analysis revealed substantial individual variation in Tb rhythms, even within a single colony. Some individuals had no Tb rhythms, while others appeared to exhibit multiple rhythms. These data corroborate previous laboratory work showing multiplicity of rhythms in mole-rats and suggest the variation seen in the laboratory is a true indicator of the variation seen in the wild. en
dc.description.librarian ab2012 en
dc.description.sponsorship SS was supported by a NRF Chair bursary during this research. JGB was supported by a Claude Leon Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. The research was supported by a core grant to NCB via the DST-NRF South African research Chair of Mammal Behavioural Ecology and Physiology. en
dc.description.uri http://www.plosone.org en
dc.identifier.citation Streicher S, Boyles JG, Oosthuizen MK, Bennett NC (2011) Body Temperature Patterns and Rhythmicity in Free-Ranging Subterranean Damaraland Mole-Rats, Fukomys damarensis. PLoS ONE 6(10): e26346. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0026346 en
dc.identifier.issn 1932-6203
dc.identifier.other 10.1371/journal.pone.0026346
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/2263/17612
dc.language.iso en en
dc.publisher Public Library of Science en
dc.rights © 2011 Streicher et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. en
dc.subject Damaraland mole-rat (Fukomys damarensis) en
dc.subject Fukomys damarensis en
dc.subject Body temperature patterns en
dc.subject Body temperature rhythms en
dc.subject.lcsh Bathyergidae en
dc.subject.lcsh Body temperature en
dc.title Body temperature patterns and rhythmicity in free-ranging subterranean Damaraland mole-rats, Fukomys damarensis en
dc.type Article en


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