Furthermore, home range sizes in gestating

subjects did not differ from those in nonreproductive years. Births occurred from mid-August to mid-September and mean litter size was 3.4. Frequent feeding in C. atrox during gestation unquestionably provides energy and nutrients to the mother, which is likely important for survival, but such food consumption does not imply that nutrients are used by the fetuses. There is, however, recent evidence in other snakes, including a pitviper, that amino acids are transferred to fetuses. Feeding during pregnancy in C. atrox may be important for both income and capital mode reproduction. Hunting and feeding throughout gestation might be accomplished by having relatively small litters not burdened MK-2206 molecular weight by a body cavity filled with fetuses. Reduction in litter size may thus be a life-history (fecundity) trade-off that permits females to survive and maintain pregnancy in regions where drought and high temperatures are often extreme and chronic. “
“Knowledge INK 128 cell line about the thermal biology of heterothermic marsupials in their native habitats is scarce. We aimed to examine torpor patterns in the free-ranging western pygmy-possum (Cercartetus concinnus), a small marsupial found in cool temperate and semi-arid habitat in southern Australia and known to express aseasonal hibernation in captivity. Temperature telemetry revealed that during two consecutive

winters four out of seven animals in a habitat with Mediterranean climate used both short (<24 h in duration) and prolonged (>24 h) torpor bouts (duration 6.4 ± 5.4 h and 89.7 ± 45.9 h, respectively). Torpor patterns were highly flexible among individuals, but low ambient temperatures

facilitated torpor. Maximum torpor bout duration was 186.0 h and the minimum body temperature measured was 4.1°C. Individuals using short bouts entered torpor before sunrise at PRKD3 the end of the active phase, whereas those using prolonged torpor entered in the early evening after sunset. Rewarming from torpor usually occurred shortly after midday, when daily ambient temperature increased. We present the first quantitative data on a marsupial species expressing opportunistic hibernation during winter in the wild, and show that torpor use in C. concinnus is strongly influenced by small-scale microclimatic conditions. “
“Incubation temperature influences the phenotype of the hatchling turtles. The aims of the present study were to investigate the daily fluctuations in temperature to which eggs of the freshwater turtle Elusor macrurus are exposed to in the wild and examine how these fluctuations may affect the phenotype and performance of the hatchlings. Eggs in the wild experienced an overall mean daily fluctuation of 5.7°C throughout the incubation period, but on particular days, the variation was as low as 2°C and as high as 22°C.