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Brain thermal inertia, but no evidence for selective brain cooling, in free-ranging western grey kangaroos (Macropus fuliginosus)

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Abstract

Marsupials reportedly can implement selective brain cooling despite lacking a carotid rete. We measured brain (hypothalamic) and carotid arterial blood temperatures every 5 min for 5, 17, and 63 days in spring in three free-living western grey kangaroos. Body temperature was highest during the night, and decreased rapidly early in the morning, reaching a nadir at 10:00. The highest body temperatures recorded occurred sporadically in the afternoon, presumably associated with exercise. Hypothalamic temperature consistently exceeded arterial blood temperature, by an average 0.3°C, except during these afternoon events when hypothalamic temperature lagged behind, and was occasionally lower than, the simultaneous arterial blood temperature. The reversal in temperatures resulted from the thermal inertia of the brain; changes in the brain to arterial blood temperature difference were related to the rate of change of arterial blood temperature on both heating and cooling (P < 0.001 for all three kangaroos). We conclude that these data are not evidence for active selective brain cooling in kangaroos. The effect of thermal inertia on brain temperature is larger than might be expected in the grey kangaroo, a discrepancy that we speculate derives from the unique vascular anatomy of the marsupial brain.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery grant to S·K.M. and D.M., by the office of the Vice-Chancellor (Research) at UWA, and by the South African National Research Foundation. We thank the Harry Waring Reserve management committee for providing permission to use the reserve and Mr. Bob Cooper, the warden of the Reserve, for his generous help with logistics and animal monitoring. The Department of Conservation and Land Management, Western Australia, approved the use of native fauna in this project. Professor Graeme Martin and the School of Animal Biology, UWA, allowed us to use their 4WD vehicle.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physiology M311, School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Science, University of Western Australia, Crawley, 6009, Australia

    Shane K. Maloney

  2. Brain Function Research Group, School of Physiology, University of the Witwatersrand, 7 York Road, Parktown, 2193, South Africa

    Andrea Fuller, Leith C. R. Meyer, Peter R. Kamerman & Duncan Mitchell

  3. Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, 82071, USA

    Graham Mitchell

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  1. Shane K. Maloney
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  2. Andrea Fuller
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  5. Graham Mitchell
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  6. Duncan Mitchell
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Correspondence to Shane K. Maloney.

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Communicated by I. D. Hume.

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Maloney, S.K., Fuller, A., Meyer, L.C.R. et al. Brain thermal inertia, but no evidence for selective brain cooling, in free-ranging western grey kangaroos (Macropus fuliginosus). J Comp Physiol B 179, 241–251 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-008-0308-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-008-0308-2

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