Confirmation of pleisiomorphic daily torpor in mammals: the round-eared elephant shrew Macroscelides proboscideus (Macroscelidea).

Abstract

The characteristics of daily torpor were measured in the round-eared elephant shrew Macroscelides proboscideus (Macroscelidea) in response to ambient temperature and food deprivation. Elephant shrews are an ancient mammal order within a superordinal African clade including hyraxes, elephants, dugongs and the aardvark. M. proboscideus only employed torpor when deprived of food; torpor did not occur under an ad libitum diet at ambient temperatures of 10, 15 and 25 degrees C. Torpor bout duration ranged from < 1 h to ca. 18 h. The times of entry into torpor were restricted to the scotophase, despite normothermic body temperature patterns indicating a rest phase coincident with the photophase. Full arousal was always achieved within the first 3 h of the photophase. When food deprived, the onset of the rest phase, and hence torpor, advanced with respect to the experimental photoperiod. The lowest torpor body temperature measured was 9.41 degrees C. Daily torpor in M. proboscideus confirms a pleisiomorphic origin of daily heterothermy. Torpor facilitates risk-averse foraging behaviour in these small omnivores by overcoming long-term energy shortfalls generated by the inherent variability of food availability in their semiarid, El Niño-afflicted habitats.