Publicação: Feeding alters the preferred body temperature of Cururu toads, Rhinella diptycha (Anura, Bufonidae)
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Elsevier B.V.
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Ectothermic organisms depend primarily on external heat sources and behavioural adjustments to regulate body temperature. Under controlled conditions, in a thermal gradient, body temperature often clusters around a more or less defined range of preferred body temperatures (T-pref). However, T-pref may be modified in response to environmental parameters and/or physiological state. For example, meal ingestion is sometimes followed by a post-prandial thermophilic response leading to a transient increment in T-pref. Although thought to optimize digestive processes, its occurrence, magnitude, and possible determinants remains scarcely documented for anuran amphibians. Herein, we investigated whether the Cururu toad, Rhinella diptycha, exhibits a post-prandial thermophilic response by monitoring the body temperature of fasting and fed toads while they were maintained in a thermal gradient. We found that the toads' T-pref increased by about 13% from day 2 to 4 after feeding, in comparison with the T-pref recorded under fasting. Also, fed animals exhibited a broader range for T-pref at days 2 and 3 post-prandial, which reflects a greater level of locomotor activity compared to fasting individuals. We conclude that R. diptycha is capable to exhibit a post-prandial thermophilic response under the controlled conditions of a thermal gradient. Although this thermoregulatory adjustment is thought to optimize meal digestion yielding important energetic and ecological benefits, its occurrence in anuran amphibians in nature remains uncertain.
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Behavioural thermoregulation, Preferred body temperature, Digestion, Thermophilic response, Feeding biology
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Inglês
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Comparative Biochemistry And Physiology A-molecular & Integrative Physiology. New York: Elsevier Science Inc, v. 249, 7 p., 2020.
