Curtin University Homepage
  • Library
  • Help
    • Admin

    espace - Curtin’s institutional repository

    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
    View Item 
    • espace Home
    • espace
    • Curtin Research Publications
    • View Item
    • espace Home
    • espace
    • Curtin Research Publications
    • View Item

    Are day-active small mammals rare and small birds abundant in Australia desert environments because small mammals are inferior thermoregulators?

    147079_147079.pdf (396.1Kb)
    Access Status
    Open access
    Authors
    Cooper, Christine
    Date
    2004
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citation
    Withers P.C., Cooper C.E. and Buttemer W.A. (2004) Are day-active small mammals rare and small birds abundant in Australia desert environments because small mammals are inferior thermoregulators? Australian Mammalogy 26 (2): 117-124.
    Additional URLs
    http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/AM04117.htm
    Faculty
    School of Agriculture and Environment
    Faculty of Science and Engineering
    Department of Environmental Biology
    Remarks

    Email: c.cooper@curtin.edu.au

    Copyright © 2011 CSIRO

    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/38507
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    Small desert birds are typically diurnal and highly mobile (hence conspicuous) whereas small non-volant mammals are generally nocturnal and less mobile (hence inconspicuous). Birds are more mobile than terrestrial mammals on a local and geographic scale, and most desert birds are not endemic but simply move to avoid the extremes of desert conditions. Many small desert mammals are relatively sedentary and regularly use physiological adjustments to cope with their desert environment (e.g., aestivation or hibernation). It seems likely that prey activity patterns and reduced conspicuousness to predators have reinforced nocturnality in small desert mammals. Differences such as nocturnality and mobility simply reflect differing life-history traits of birds and mammals rather than being a direct result of their differences in physiological capacity for tolerating daytime desert conditions.

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Endocrinology of osmoregulation and thermoregulation of Australian desert tetrapods: A historical perspective.
      Cooper, Christine (2015)
      Many Australian tetrapods inhabit desert environments characterised by low productivity, unpredictable rainfall, high temperatures and high incident solar radiation. Maintaining a homeostatic milieu intérieur by osmoregulation ...
    • Can birds do it too? Evidence for convergence in evaporative water loss regulation for birds and mammals
      Eto, E.; Withers, Philip; Cooper, Christine (2017)
      Birds have many physiological characteristics that are convergent with mammals. In the light of recent evidence that mammals can maintain a constant insensible evaporative water loss (EWL) over a range of perturbing ...
    • Physiological regulation of evaporative water loss in endotherms: Is the little red kaluta (Dasykaluta rosamondae) an exception or the rule?
      Withers, P.; Cooper, Christine (2014)
      It is a central paradigm of comparative physiology that the effect of humidity on evaporative water loss (EWL) is determined for most mammals and birds, in and below thermoneutrality, essentially by physics and is not ...
    Advanced search

    Browse

    Communities & CollectionsIssue DateAuthorTitleSubjectDocument TypeThis CollectionIssue DateAuthorTitleSubjectDocument Type

    My Account

    Admin

    Statistics

    Most Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular Authors

    Follow Curtin

    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 

    CRICOS Provider Code: 00301JABN: 99 143 842 569TEQSA: PRV12158

    Copyright | Disclaimer | Privacy statement | Accessibility

    Curtin would like to pay respect to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members of our community by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which the Perth campus is located, the Whadjuk people of the Nyungar Nation; and on our Kalgoorlie campus, the Wongutha people of the North-Eastern Goldfields.