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barham-et-al-2024-cooling-down-is-as-important-as-warming-up-for-a-large-bodied-tropical-reptile2.03 MB
Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Cooling down is as important as warming up for a large-bodied tropical reptile
Royal Society of London. Proceedings B. Biological Sciences, Vol.291(2034), pp.1-12
2024
PMID: 39500376
Abstract
An ectotherm’s performance and physiological function are strongly tied to environmental temperature, and many ectotherms thermoregulate behaviourally to reach optimum body temperatures. Tropical ectotherms are already living in environments matching their thermal tolerance range and may be expected to conform to environmental temperatures. We tracked the body temperatures ( T b ) of 163 estuarine crocodiles across 13 years and compared T b of 39 crocodiles to water temperature gathered using fish-borne sensors ( T w ) across 3 years (2015–2018). While T b largely conformed closely to T w , we found inter- and intra-individual differences in relative body temperature ( T b – T w ) that depended on sex and body size as well as the time of day and year. Deviations from T w , especially during the warm parts of the year, suggest that thermoregulatory behaviour was taking place: we found patterns of warming and cooling events that seemed to mediate this variation in T b . Thermoregulatory behaviour was observed most frequently in larger individuals, with warming events common during winter and cooling events common during summer. By observing free-ranging animals across multiple years, we found that estuarine crocodiles show yearly patterns of active cooling and warming behaviours that modify their body temperature, highlighting their resilience in the face of recent climate warming. Our work also provides the first evidence for thermal type in large-bodied reptiles.
Details
- Title
- Cooling down is as important as warming up for a large-bodied tropical reptile
- Authors
- Kaitlin E. Barham (Corresponding Author) - The University of QueenslandRoss G. Dwyer (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringCeline H. Frere - The University of QueenslandLily K. Bentley - The University of QueenslandCameron J. Baker - Charles Darwin UniversityHamish A. Campbell - Charles Darwin UniversityTerri R. Irwin - Australia ZooCraig E. Franklin - The University of Queensland
- Publication details
- Royal Society of London. Proceedings B. Biological Sciences, Vol.291(2034), pp.1-12
- Publisher
- The Royal Society Publishing
- Date published
- 2024
- DOI
- 10.1098/rspb.2024.1804
- ISSN
- 1471-2954; 0962-8452
- PMID
- 39500376
- Copyright note
- © 2024 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
- Data Availability
- Data and code are available on UQ eSpace, and data are available on the Acoustic Animal Tracking Database (https://animaltracking.aodn.org.au) of the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS, www.imos.org.au). IMOS is a national collaborative researchinfrastructure supported by the Australian Government. Supplementary material is available online.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991076319802621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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