The Role of Energy Availability in Mammalian Hibernation: A Cost‐Benefit Approach

@article{Humphries2003TheRO,
  title={The Role of Energy Availability in Mammalian Hibernation: A Cost‐Benefit Approach},
  author={Murray M. Humphries and Donald W. Thomas and Donald L. Kramer},
  journal={Physiological and Biochemical Zoology},
  year={2003},
  volume={76},
  pages={165 - 179}
}
Hibernation is widely regarded as an adaptation to seasonal energy shortage, but the actual influence of energy availability on hibernation patterns is rarely considered. Here we review literature on the costs and benefits of torpor expression to examine the influence that energy may have on hibernation patterns. We first establish that the dichotomy between food‐ and fat‐storing hibernators coincides with differences in diet rather than body size and show that small or large species pursuing… 
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The Role of Energy Availability in Mammalian Hibernation: An Experimental Test in Free‐Ranging Eastern Chipmunks
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The results indicate that reduced torpor expression by hibernators can result from an absence of energetic necessity rather than a lack of physiological capability and suggest that even endotherms sequestered in a hibernaculum may benefit from maintaining an elevated body temperature whenever possible.
Energy availability influences microclimate selection of hibernating bats
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The results suggest that fat-storing bats minimize torpor expression using both physiological and behavioral mechanisms, and predicted that individuals with small energy reserves would select colder temperatures for hibernation in order to minimize energy expenditure, while individuals with largerEnergy reserves would choose warmer temperatures to minimize the costs of hibernation.
Changes to Metabolism and Cell Physiology that Enable Mammalian Hibernation
TLDR
It appears that a complete suite of adaptations to metabolism, vital physiological functions, and thermogenic mechanisms is required for the successful expression of the hibernation phenotype.
A mesocosm experiment in ecological physiology: adaptive modulation of energy budget in a hibernating marsupial under chronic caloric restriction
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This work provides compelling evidence of a fine-tuning use of hibernation in response to food availability and presents the first direct estimation of energy savings by hibernation encompassing the total hibernation cycle.
Body mass dependent use of hibernation: why not prolong the active season, if they can?
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This study indicates that climatic conditions alone are not a good predictor of hibernation patterns or survival in hibernating species during global climate change, and concludes that predator avoidance may be an important factor influencing patterns of hiberning and torpor in mammals.
Flexibility is the key: metabolic and thermoregulatory behaviour in a small endotherm
TLDR
Body mass and thermal energetics of edible dormice during high and low food years are investigated and demonstrate that during periods of low food availability, edible dormouse enter an energy-saving mode with reduced body temperature and resting metabolic rate, and high torpor frequencies.
Daily torpor and hibernation in birds and mammals
  • T. Ruf, F. Geiser
  • Biology
    Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
  • 2015
TLDR
The analysis strongly supports the view that hibernators and daily heterotherms are functionally distinct groups that probably have been subject to disruptive selection.
Annual lipid cycles in hibernators: integration of physiology and behavior.
  • J. Dark
  • Biology
    Annual review of nutrition
  • 2005
TLDR
The unique manner in which hibernators are controlled during the annual cycle, especially lipid reserves, makes them valuable and promising models for research into the mechanisms underlying these processes in all mammals.
Body Mass and Tail Girth Predict Hibernation Expression in Captive Dwarf Lemurs
TLDR
Assessment of torpor expression in captive dwarf lemurs, primates that are obligate, seasonal, and tropical hibernators, suggests that individuals optimize rather than maximize torpor according to body mass.
Field evidence for a proximate role of food shortage in the regulation of hibernation and daily torpor: a review
TLDR
Evidence on the proximate role of food availability in heterothermy regulation by endotherms is reviewed, and alternative hypotheses that remain to be tested are emphasized.
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The results indicate that reduced torpor expression by hibernators can result from an absence of energetic necessity rather than a lack of physiological capability and suggest that even endotherms sequestered in a hibernaculum may benefit from maintaining an elevated body temperature whenever possible.
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