Comparative studies on programmes for management of energy supply: torpor, pre-winter fattening and migration

摘要

Lavoisier was the first to measure whole-body metabolic rate. It seems appropriate, therefore, in this commemorative symposium, to draw attention to the continuing value of whole-body metabolic measurements as a valuable contribution to scientific progress in the understanding of metabolic fuel selection. Such holistic studies provide both a foil and a complement to many of the other papers presented at this symposium which are essentially reductionist. The principal purpose is to draw attention to the unique programme-for-management of energy supply, which genetic selection has given to each species. This is first discussed in principle, then illustrated as far as possible by examples from nature. From the vast panoply of choice offered by nature Ihave chosen, wherever possible, illustrations from my own studies.