Does torpor of elephant shrews differ from that of other heterothermic mammals?

摘要

Torpor bouts of elephant shrews are intermediate in duration to those of daily heterotherms and hibernating mammals, but their body temperatures (T _bs) and metabolic rates are very low and similar to those of hibernating mammals. We quantified the thermal physiology of the Cape rock elephant shrew (Elephantulus edwardii), a species endemic to high-altitude regions of South Africa, where winters are cold and wet, and tested whether it displays multiday torpor characteristic of hibernators at low ambient temperature (T_a). E. edwardii regularly displayed torpor over a wide range of T_as. Occurrence of torpor and duration of torpor bouts increased with decreasing T_a. Whereas normothermic T_b was stable, T_b in torpid individuals fell with T_a. The mean T_b - T_a differential at the minimum T_b was 0.7°C, and the mean minimum T_b at T_a 8.9°C was 9.3°C. Duration of torpor bouts ranged from 6.5 to 44 h and was correlated negatively with T_a and T_b during torpor. Time required for the reduction of T_b to a T_b - T_a differential of <2.0°C was faster for >1-day torpor bouts than those lasting ≤1 day, suggesting that the duration of a bout might be determined at the beginning, not during, a bout. The nature of heterothermy in E. edwardii seems qualitatively similar to that of other elephant shrews, although torpor is somewhat deeper and longer in this species. Temporal patterns of torpor in E. edwardii differ from those of most cold-climate hibernators, likely for ecological rather than physiological reasons.