Heart rate biologging as a tool to understand the energetic needs of life history states

Clare Stawski; Fritz Geiser; Gerhard Körtner; Shannon Currie

doi:10.1093/conphys/coag072

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Heart rate biologging as a tool to understand the energetic needs of life history states

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Heart rate biologging as a tool to understand the energetic needs of life history states

Clare Stawski, Fritz Geiser, Gerhard Körtner and Shannon Currie

Conservation Physiology, Vol.14(1), pp.1-13

2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/conphys/coag072

PMID: 42807938

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Abstract

Body temperature

daily energy expenditure

energetics

gestation

heart rate

lactation

metabolic rate

thermoregulation

torpor

Energy is vital for life, and the energetic needs of an organism can be quantified via its metabolic rate, for which measurements have traditionally been restricted to the laboratory. Alternatively, heart rate has been shown to be an excellent predictor of metabolic rate under laboratory conditions and can provide long-term measurements from free-ranging individuals at fine temporal resolution. We quantified the relationship between metabolic rate, heart rate and body temperature of a small arboreal marsupial, Krefft’s glider (Petaurus notatus; 125 g) and how their energetic needs are affected by reproductive condition. Gliders were housed in a large outdoor aviary that experienced natural weather variations. We measured heart rate and body temperature continuously with internal implanted data loggers, and metabolic rates were intermittently measured in a laboratory with open flow respirometry. In addition to establishing a positive curvilinear relationship between heart rate and metabolic rate, these data were also used to calculate daily energy expenditure while gliders were in the outdoor aviaries. Daily energy expenditure decreased from winter to spring, indicating a strong seasonal influence, which likely resulted in lactating females utilizing less energy during spring than gestating females during winter. Understanding the energetic requirements of species under different life history states is vital for understanding their ecology and ultimately conservation management.

Details

Title: Heart rate biologging as a tool to understand the energetic needs of life history states
Authors: Clare Stawski (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
Fritz Geiser - University of New England
Gerhard Körtner - University of New England
Shannon Currie - The University of Melbourne
Publication details: Conservation Physiology, Vol.14(1), pp.1-13
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date published: 2026
DOI: 10.1093/conphys/coag072
ISSN: 2051-1434
PMID: 42807938
Copyright note: © The Author(s) 2026. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Data Availability: Data from this study are accessible from the Supplementary material.
Grants: Key mammalian survival strategies in a rapidly changing environment, DE160101408, Australian Research Council (Australia, Canberra) - ARC
Organisation Unit: K'gari Research Cluster; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991266096002621
Output Type: Journal article

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