Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
2843539 | Journal of Thermal Biology | 2010 | 7 Pages |
Abstract
In this study, we examined infrared thermograms in the course of time of six African zoo elephants and observed two phenomena. First, we noticed independent thermal windows, highly vascularised skin areas, on the whole elephants’ body and second we observed distinct and sharply delimited hot sections on the elephants’ pinnae. The frequency of thermal windows increased with increasing ambient temperature and body weight. We assume that the restriction of an enhanced cutaneous blood flow to thermal windows might enable the animal to react more flexibly to its needs with regard to heat loss. With this understanding, the use of thermal windows in heat loss might be seen as a fine-tuning mechanism under thermoneutral conditions.
Related Topics
Life Sciences
Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Agricultural and Biological Sciences (General)
Authors
Nicole M. Weissenböck, Christoph M. Weiss, Harald M. Schwammer, Helmut Kratochvil,