title: Effect of season on thermoregulation, metabolism and ventilation of the southern brown bandicoot Isoodon obesulus (Marsupialia: Peramelidae).
abstract: Seasonal variation in various thermoregulatory, metabolic and ventilatory parameters was examined for southern brown bandicoots (Isoodon obesulus fusciventer) from a Mediterranean climate near Perth, Western Australia. There was significant seasonal variation over the four annual seasons at thermoneutrality (Ta=30 degrees C) in body temperature, oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production, respiratory exchange ratio, total evaporative water loss, wet and dry thermal conductance and tidal volume but not mass, ventilatory frequency, minute volume or oxygen extraction efficiency. Only carbon dioxide production and respiratory exchange ratio showed an annual pattern that was significantly related to season, with both being significantly higher in winter, presumably as a result of greater and higher quality food availability.
authors.affiliation: Zoology, School of Animal Biology, The University of Western Australia, Western Australia, Australia. ebmocral@graduate.uwa.edu.au
authors.forename: Alexander Neil
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Larcombe
authors.forename: Philip Carew
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Withers
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001833:Body Temperature Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D001835:Body Weight; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000378:metabolism; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008394:Marsupialia / Q000502:physiology*; D010101:Oxygen Consumption / Q000502:physiology; D012123:Pulmonary Ventilation / Q000502:physiology*; D012621:Seasons; D014870:Water Loss, Insensible / Q000502:physiology; D014904:Western Australia
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide