Dietary fats and torpor patterns in hibernating ground squirrels

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Abstract
The effect of a sunflower oil diet (rodent chow with 10% addition by weight of sunflower seed oil, rich in linoleic acid), a sheep fat diet (rodent chow with 10% addition by weight of sheep fat, rich in saturated fatty acids and oleic acid), and a control diet (rodent chow without added fat or oil) on the pattern of torpor was investigated in the ground squirrel Spermophilus saturatus, a relatively large (250 g) hibernator. Torpid S. saturatus on the sunflower oil diet showed a lower minimum body temperature (2.1 vs. 3.5 °C), a lower metabolic rate (0.029 vs. 0.043 mL O2/g∙h)), and longer bouts of torpor (252 vs. 193 h at an air temperature of − 1.0 °C) than animals on the sheep fat diet. These physiological variables showed intermediate values in controls. It appears, therefore, that the composition of dietary fatty acids, rather than the fat content of the diet, affected torpor patterns. It is likely that the observed physiological differences may be explained by diet-induced compositional differences in body lipid composition.

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