Growth and development of temperature regulation in nestling cattle egrets

doi:10.1016/0300-9629(74)90900-1

Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Physiology

Volume 49, Issue 4, 1 December 1974, Pages 717-720, IN1-IN2, 721-741

Comparative Biochemi...

https://doi.org/10.1016/0300-9629(74)90900-1 Get rights and content

Abstract

1.
1. The growth of cattle egrets is typical of altricial birds of comparable size and appears best described by the logistic equation.
2.
2. The telemetered body temperatures of six nestlings measured in the field over extended periods ranged between 38 and 40°C.
3.
3. Resistance of nestlings to hypothermia develops gradually after hatching as a more intense standard metabolism and capacities for augmenting muscular thermogenesis in the cold are established.
4.
4. Chicks increase their breathing rate and initiate gular flutter in response to heat loads. At ambient temperatures of 44/2–45°C, they evaporatively dissipated heat at rates up to 2/2–5 times heat production. Heat defense is well developed at hatching in cattle egrets.

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The rapid maturation of thermoregulatory mechanisms may be of critical importance for optimising chick growth and survival and parental energy investment under harsh climatic conditions. The ontogeny of thermoregulatory mechanisms was studied in growing king penguin chicks from hatching to the full emancipation observed at 1 month of age in the sub-Antarctic area (Crozet Archipelago). Newly hatched chicks showed small, but significant regulatory thermogenesis (21% rise in heat production assessed by indirect calorimetry), but rapidly became hypothermic. Within a few days, both resting (+32%) and peak (+52%) metabolic rates increased. The first week of life was characterised by a two-fold rise in thermogenic capacity in the cold, while thermal insulation was not improved. During the second and third weeks of age, thermal insulation markedly rose (two-fold drop in thermal conductance) in relation to down growth, while resting heat production was slightly reduced (−13%). Shivering (assessed by electromyography) was visible right after hatching, although its efficiency was limited. Thermogenic efficiency of shivering increased five-fold with age during the first weeks of life, but there was no sign of non-shivering thermogenesis. We conclude that thermal emancipation of king penguin chicks may be primarily determined by improvement of thermal insulation after thermogenic processes have become sufficiently matured. Both insulative and metabolic adaptations are required for the rapid ontogeny of thermoregulation and thermal emancipation in growing king penguin chicks.
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The body temperature (Tb) of brooded Agapornis nestlings increased with age from 36.2 on the day of hatching to 38.9 °C on day 11.5, whereas the thermally neutral ambient temperature (Ta,n) decreased with age. The Tb of nestling after a 20 min exposure to Ta ≈ 5 °C < Ta,n increased from 31.9 on day 0.5 to 37 °C on day 11.5 At Ta,n, both resting V̇_O₂ and mass-independent resting V̇_O₂ increased with age. Ventilation frequency (f) at Ta,n increased with age from 14.9 br/min on day 0.5 to 65.6 on day 11.5. This trend is the opposite of the allometric prediction based upon data from adult birds. At hatching, tidal volume (VT) was larger than predicted allometrically, whereas minute volume (V̇I) was smaller. After 20 min exposure to $Ta 5 °C < Ta,n, f, V T and V ̇ I$ in nestlings 1 to 3 days old remained unchanged, but V̇_O₂ and oxygen extraction efficiency decreased. This mild cold-challenge caused a transient increase in V̇_O₂ of nestlings 5 to 8 days of age and 20 to 35% of adult mass. By the time the nestlings were 11.5 days old and had a mass 44% that of adults, their metabolic response, to a mild cold-challenge was equal to that of an adult of the same mass. However, they were not capable of effective homeothermy over a wide range of Ta's.
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- 1.
  1. Evaporative heat loss (E), O₂ consumption, CO₂ production and internal body temperature (T_b) were measured in bobwhite (1–65 days of age) at specific ambient temperatures (T_a).
- 2.
  2. t_b at t_a 25°C increased from 27.6° in 1-day-old quail to 41.1°C in the adult.
- 3.
  3. Improvements in thermal stability are attributed to augmented rates of metabolic heat production (H) and a diminution in total thermal conductance.
- 4.
  4. Inability of immature quail to maintain constant t_b is not attributed to excessive rates of E. The ratio of E ti H did not change after day 6, when the major increase in thermoregulatory ability occurred in the quail.
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  1. Birds lose water in evaporation from the respiratory tract and, in many species, through the skin. Anatomical arrangements in the nasal passages contribute to conservation of water and heat from the expired air in the absence of heat loads. However, most species still expend more water in evaporation than they produce in metabolism when either quiescent or vigorously active. Certain small birds, several of them associated with arid environments, represent exceptions to this and their more favorable situation appears in part to reflect an ability to curtail cutaneous water loss.
- 2.
  2. Birds typically resort to panting in dealing with substantial heat loads developing in hot environments or accumulated over bouts of activity. In a number of species this form of evaporative cooling is supplemented by gular fluttering.
- 3.
  3. The ubiquitousness of active heat defense appears to reflect more the importance for birds of dealing with heat loads existing following flight or sustained running than any universal affinity for hot climates. Panting can be sustained for hours, despite progressive dehydration and, in some instances, hypocapnia and respiratory alkalosis. The prominent involvement of thermoreceptors in the spinal cord in its initiation is of considerable interest.
Thermal and electromyographic correlates of shivering thermogenesis in the pigeon
1982, Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology -- Part A: Physiology
- 1.
  1. Electromyographic, thermal and metabolic measurements were made on pigeons subjected to stepwise ambient cooling. Subsequent signal analysis of the EMG-recordings from the pectoral muscle showed that the mean rectified value (U_mrv) is the most reliable EMG-based indicator of metabolic heat production (M).
- 2.
  2. The muscle-abdomen temperature difference was linearly related to M and correlated strongly with U_mrv.
- 3.
  3. The long-term and short-term fluctuations of shivering intensity (U_mrv) highly synchronous in the two main muscles, m. pectoralis and m. supracoracoideus.
- 4.
  4. The EMG-signal approached a Gaussian process at high shivering intensities. Evaluation of the changes in EMG median frequency suggested a size-dependent recruitment of motor units for shivering.
- 5.
  5. It is pointed out that U_mrv and the integrated value of EMG are interconvertible and that U_mrv should be preferred, because it has more physiological relevance.

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Growth and development of temperature regulation in nestling cattle egrets

Abstract

Comp. Biochem. Physiol.

Comp. Biochem. Physiol.

Comp. Biochem. Physiol.

Check-list of North American Birds

The role of behavior in the temperature regulation of the masked booby

Condor

Temperature regulation in young pelicans, herons and gulls

Ecology

A field study of temperature regulation in young white pelicans Pelecanus erythrorhynchos

Ecology

Oxygen consumption and respiratory evaporation of the emu and rhea

Condor

Relation of growth and development to temperature regulation in nestling field and chipping sparrows

Physiol. Zoöl.

Relation of growth and development to temperature regulation in nestling Vesper sparrows

Condor

Birds

Temperature regulation in newly hatched laughing gulls (Larus atricilla)

Condor

Use of the Pauling oxygen analyzer for measurement of oxygen consumption of animals in open-circuit systems and in a short-lag, closed-circuit apparatus

J. appl. Physiol.

Cold-acclimation and the role of catecholamines in body temperature regulation in male leghorns

Poult. Sci.

Body temperature and the ontogeny of thermoregulation in the slender-billed shearwater

Condor

Temperature regulation in Laysan and blackfooted albatrosses

Condor

Temperature regulation in the red-tailed tropic bird and the red-footed booby

Condor

Thermorégulation in the wood stork, with special reference to the role of thelegs

Physiol. Zoöl.