Seasonal variation in use of torpor by pallid kangaroo mice, Microdipodops pallidus

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Many small mammals respond to energetic stresses by lowering their body temperatures and becoming torpid. This process of metabolic reduction is common among heteromyid rodents, and several species have attained some notoriety because they can vary the duration of torpor in response to alterations in food supply and ambient temperature. Such metabolic adjustments allow them to remain in energetic balance over a wide range of environmental conditions that would otherwise be lethal. Perhaps the most remarkable capacity for metabolic adjustment has been documented in the pallid kangaroo mouse, Microdipodops pallidus. This paper presents data that reveal the seasonal nature of this phenomenon and that indicate M. pallidus does not match precisely its use of torpor to an assessment of its foraging success or food caches during spring and summer. At this time of year, torpor is used only as a last resort when the animals are starving, and this strategy does not appear to be an effective survival strategy during prolonged periods of food shortage

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ELECTRONIC FILE - Zoology