Body temperature variation in free-living garter snakes (thamnophis elegans vagrans)
Pullman, Wash., Washington State Univ., Diss., 1982
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Tag hinzufügen | Zusammenfassung: | Pullman, Wash., Washington State Univ., Diss., 1982 This study describes how the body temperatures of individual garter snakes varied daily and seasonally under field conditions. Temperature sensitive radio-transmitters were surgically implanted into ten wandering garter snakes from Turnbull Pine Research Natural Area in eastern Washington. The snakes were released and monitored at 15-minute intervals for periods of up to 67 hours from June of 1979 to May of 1980. Operative environmental temperatures were estimated with appropriately painted metal models. Three patterns of daily body temperature (Tb) variation were distinguished: (1) Plateau Pattern--On days when model temperatures (Tm) exceeded 30 C, the snakes usually exhibited a Tb pattern characterized by (a) a long, slow cooling phase at night; (b) a short, rapid heating phase in the morning; and (c) an extended plateau phase during the day. Heating rates were higher than cooling rates (e.g., 0.30 vs 0.03 C/min). During the plateau phase, the snakes regulated their Tbs with a relatively high degree of precision (e.g., 30 +/- 2 C with a standard deviation of less than 1 C for a 10-hour period). Body temperature frequency distributions for plateau pattern records were bimodal. (2) Oscillating Pattern--On medium temperature days (15 < Tm < 30), the snakes usually had a Tb record consisting of cooling and heating phases, and an oscillating phase of considerable Tb variation. (3) Smooth Pattern--When model temperatures were low (Tm < 15 C), the snakes remained underground and a Tb record of gradually changing temperatures resulted. Most of the statistics used to summarize Tb records (daily minimum Tb, mean Tb, Tb range, heating and cooling rates, etc.) varied seasonally, reflecting environmental conditions. The seasonal patterns of other Tb statistics reflected the snakes' thermoregulatory behavior. Although there was no detectable seasonal trend in thermoregulatory precision (as indicated by plateau phase Tb ranges and standard deviations), thermal preference (as indicated by plateau phase mean Tbs) decreased throughout the snakes' active season. Environmental conditions constrained the body temperatures of the snakes during all or much of each day throughout the year, limiting when and where the snakes could be active as well as their physiological processes. . . . (Author's abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of author.) UMI |
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| Beschreibung: | 186 S. |