The Relation of Oxygen Consumption to Temperature in Desert Rodents

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Abstract
No information is available on the effects of temperature upon the oxygen consumption of any desert rodent, although the Schmidt-Nielsens (1950a) have made measurements on several species at 25° C. in the course of their extensive investigations of water metabolism (1952). Accordingly, this study dealing with the Merriam and Panamint kangaroo rats (Dipodomys merriami and D. panamintinus) and with the antelope ground squirrel (Citellus leucurus) was undertaken. It attempts to define the zones of metabolic thermal neutrality for these desert animals, to analyse their metabolic responses to ambient temperatures above and below thermal neutrality, and to compare the temperature regulation of the nocturnal kangaroo rats, which do not meet the most intense desert heat, with that of the diurnal ground squirrel, which periodically encounters high air temperatures and intense solar radiation.