Field metabolic rates of giant pandas reveal energetic adaptations

© 2021. The Author(s)..

Knowledge of energy expenditure informs conservation managers for long term plans for endangered species health and habitat suitability. We measured field metabolic rate (FMR) of free-roaming giant pandas in large enclosures in a nature reserve using the doubly labeled water method. Giant pandas in zoo like enclosures had a similar FMR (14,182 kJ/day) to giant pandas in larger field enclosures (13,280 kJ/day). In winter, giant pandas raised their metabolic rates when living at - 2.4 °C (36,108 kJ/day) indicating that they were below their thermal neutral zone. The lower critical temperature for thermoregulation was about 8.0 °C and the upper critical temperature was about 28 °C. Giant panda FMRs were somewhat lower than active metabolic rates of sloth bears, lower than FMRs of grizzly bears and polar bears and 69 and 81% of predicted values based on a regression of FMR versus body mass of mammals. That is probably due to their lower levels of activity since other bears actively forage for food over a larger home range and pandas often sit in a patch of bamboo and eat bamboo for hours at a time. The low metabolic rates of giant pandas in summer, their inability to acquire fat stores to hibernate in winter, and their ability to raise their metabolic rate to thermoregulate in winter are energetic adaptations related to eating a diet composed almost exclusively of bamboo. Differences in FMR of giant pandas between our study and previous studies (one similar and one lower) appear to be due to differences in activity of the giant pandas in those studies.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2021

Erschienen:

2021

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:11

Enthalten in:

Scientific reports - 11(2021), 1 vom: 17. Nov., Seite 22391

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Bi, Wenlei [VerfasserIn]
Hou, Rong [VerfasserIn]
Owens, Jacob R [VerfasserIn]
Spotila, James R [VerfasserIn]
Valitutto, Marc [VerfasserIn]
Yin, Guan [VerfasserIn]
Paladino, Frank V [VerfasserIn]
Wu, Fanqi [VerfasserIn]
Qi, Dunwu [VerfasserIn]
Zhang, Zhihe [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 31.01.2022

Date Revised 31.01.2022

published: Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1038/s41598-021-01872-5

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM333274768