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Physiological acclimation of a desert antelope, Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx), to long-term food and water restriction

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Abstract

Desert mammals often experience scarcity of drinking water and food for prolonged periods. In this study, the first long-term acclimation experiment in a non-domesticated desert-adapted ungulate, we investigated the mechanisms used by the Arabian oryx Oryx leucoryx, to adjust its physiology to progressive food and water restriction over 5 months, an experimental regimen and time course chosen to mimic what it typically experiences between spring and late summer in the desert. At the end of the acclimation period, oryx consumed less than one and half of food and water of animals in the control group and lost 8.2±2.6% of their initial body mass. Experimental animals reduced their mass-specific resting metabolic rate (RMR) and total evaporative water loss (TEWL) by 16.2 and 25.7%, respectively, and maintained a digestive efficiency of about 70%. We found no support for the idea that reduced RMR in oryx correlated with a decreased thyroid hormone concentration in plasma. At the end of the 5 months acclimation, oryx continued to mobilize fatty acids to fuel metabolism, and did not use protein breakdown as a major source of gluconeogenesis. Oryx in the experimental group reduced their water intake by 70% and maintained constant plasma osmolality. They adjusted their water budget by reducing mass-specific TEWL, increasing urine osmolality and reducing urine volume by 40%, and excreting feces with <50% water content. Oryx have an unusually low TEWL compared with other arid-zone ungulates; both hydrated and water-deprived individuals have TEWL values, 51.7 and 39.3%, respectively, of allometric predictions for arid-zone ungulates.

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Abbreviations

RMR:

Resting metabolic rate

TEWL:

Total evaporative water loss

WEI:

Water economy index

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Acknowledgments

We wish to express our appreciation to the national commission for wildlife conservation and development (NCWCD), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for support during our research efforts. Wildlife research programs at the national wildlife research center (NWRC) have been made possible through the initiative of HRH Prince Saud Al Faisal and under the guidance of AH Abuzinada. We thank RJ Hudson and RG White for commenting to an earlier version of the manuscript. We thank A. Muñoz-Garcia for help in PIC analyses. Experimental protocols on animals were approved by the NCWCD. Funding for this study was received from NCWCD/NWRC, the National Geographic Society (7348–02) and the National Science Foundation (JBW).

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  1. Stéphane Ostrowski

    Present address: UMR 5123, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, 43 bd du 11 Novembre 1918, 69622, Villeurbanne, France

  2. Pascal Mésochina

    Present address:  , 93 rue de Pontoise, 95660, Champagne-sur-Oise, France

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Wildlife Research Center, P.O. Box 1086, Taif, Saudi Arabia

    Stéphane Ostrowski & Pascal Mésochina

  2. Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, Ohio State University, 300 Aronoff Lab, 318 W 12th Ave, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Joseph B. Williams

  3. Institute of Animal Sciences, Physiology and Hygiene Group, University of Bonn, Katzenburgweg 7–9, 53115, Bonn, Germany

    Helga Sauerwein

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  1. Stéphane Ostrowski
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Correspondence to Stéphane Ostrowski.

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Ostrowski, S., Williams, J.B., Mésochina, P. et al. Physiological acclimation of a desert antelope, Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx), to long-term food and water restriction. J Comp Physiol B 176, 191–201 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-005-0040-0

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