spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif Online submission spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

First published online February 12, 2007
Journal of Experimental Biology 210, 741-749 (2007)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2007
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02705
This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Related articles in JEB
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hoffman, T. C.M.
Right arrow Articles by DeNardo, D. F.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Hoffman, T. C.M.
Right arrow Articles by DeNardo, D. F.

Cloacal evaporation: an important and previously undescribed mechanism for avian thermoregulation

Ty C.M. Hoffman*, Glenn E. Walsberg and Dale F. DeNardo

School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-4501, USA

* Author for correspondence (e-mail: tycmhoffman{at}cox.net)

Accepted 2 January 2007

We present the first experimental evidence that a bird is capable of evaporating enough water from the cloaca to be important for thermoregulation. We measured rates of evaporation occurring from the mouth, the skin, and the cloaca of Inca doves Columbina inca Lesson and Eurasian quail Coturnix coturnix Linnaeus. Inca doves showed no significant increase in cutaneous evaporation in response to curtailment of buccopharyngeal evaporation. Cloacal evaporation in doves was negligible at ambient temperatures of 30°, 35° and 40°C. However, at 42°C, the apportionment of total evaporation in doves was 53.4% cutaneous, 25.4% buccopharyngeal and 21.2% cloacal, with cloacal evaporation shedding, on average, 150 mW of heat. In contrast, the evaporative apportionment in quail at 32°C (the highest ambient temperature tolerated by this species) was 58.2% cutaneous, 35.4% buccopharyngeal and 6.4% cloacal. These results suggest that, for some birds, cloacal evaporation can be controlled and could serve as an important emergency tactic for thermoregulation at high ambient temperatures.

Key words: cloaca, cutaneous, evaporative, water loss, metabolism, bird, Inca dove, Columbina inca, Eurasian quail, Coturnix coturnix


Related articles in JEB:

CLOACAL COOLING
Yfke Hager
JEB 2007 210: 0. [Full Text]  



This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Exp. Biol.Home page
G. R. Scott, V. Cadena, G. J. Tattersall, and W. K. Milsom
Body temperature depression and peripheral heat loss accompany the metabolic and ventilatory responses to hypoxia in low and high altitude birds
J. Exp. Biol., April 15, 2008; 211(8): 1326 - 1335.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 IOVSHome page
M. B. Toomey and K. J. McGraw
Modified Saponification and HPLC Methods for Analyzing Carotenoids from the Retina of Quail: Implications for Its Use as a Nonprimate Model Species
Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci., September 1, 2007; 48(9): 3976 - 3982.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Exp. Biol.Home page
Y. Hager
CLOACAL COOLING
J. Exp. Biol., March 1, 2007; 210(5): i - i.
[Full Text] [PDF]


© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2007