Mammals exposed to low temperatures increase their metabolic rate to maintain constant body temperature and thus compensate for heat loss. This high and costly energetic demand can be mitigated through thermoregulatory behavior such as social grouping or huddling, which helps to decrease metabolic rate as function of the numbers of individuals grouped. Sustained low temperatures in endothermic animals produce changes over time in rates of energy expenditure, by means of phenotypic plasticity. However, the putative modulating effect that huddling exerts on the flexibility of the basal metabolic rate (BMR) due to thermal acclimation remains unknown. We determined BMR values in Octodon degus, an endemic Chilean rodent, after being acclimated to either 15 or 30°C during 60 days, both alone and in groups of three and five individuals. At 15°C, BMR of huddling individuals was 40% lower than that of animals housed alone. Moreover, infrared thermography revealed a significant increase in local surface temperatures in huddled animals. Furthermore, individual thermal conductance was lower in individuals acclimated to 15°C than to 30°C, but no differences were observed between single and grouped animals. Our results indicate that huddling prevents an increase in BMR when animals are acclimated to cold conditions and that this effect is proportional to the number of animals grouped. KEY WORDS: Acclimation, Basal metabolic rate, Huddling, Octodon degus, Phenotypic plasticity INTRODUCTIONEndothermy is defined as the ability to produce endogenous heat, allowing individuals to maintain a positive temperature differential with the environment and remain in homeothermic condition (Hill et al., 2004). Heat production may be modulated through behavioral and physiological changes at different scales and across a wide range of ambient temperatures (Gilbert et al., 2010). For example, animals exposed to temperatures below the thermoneutral zone (TNZ) must compensate for heat losses by increasing their metabolic rate in order to remain homeothermic (Canals, 1998). Thus survival of small mammals at low temperatures may depend on their ability to reduce heat loss and/or to increase metabolic rate, which in many cases involves a large energy cost (Kauffman et al., 2003).To compensate for the increased energy expenditure caused by exposure to low temperatures, individuals may exhibit behavioral responses such as social grouping or huddling (Canals, 1998 et al., 2010). Recently, Gilbert et al. (Gilbert et al., 2012) documented that local heating is crucial in reducing the extent of the cold challenge in huddling rabbit pups. Through thermal images, they demonstrated that at 14°C, the mean surface temperature of the huddle was higher than the mean temperature of isolated pups. Their study demonstrated that local heating when huddling provided each pup with an ambient 'public warmth' in the cold. Thus, huddling behavior reduces energy costs by reducing the metabolic rate and average thermal conductance of each individual in the grou...

Due to the higher energy requirements of birds during winter, it is predicted that the activities of metabolic enzymes (e.g., citrate synthase, CS and cytochrome C oxidase, COX) should increase in tandem with increases in rates of energy expenditure (e.g., basal metabolic rate, BMR). However, there is mixed support for the hypothesis of enzymatic acclimatization. Furthermore, there is little information about the effect of ambient temperature on energetics and tissue enzyme activity levels in passerines inhabiting seasonal Mediterranean environments. In this study we evaluated the interplay between BMR and enzyme activities of freshly caught individuals of the passerine Zonotrichia capensis in winter and summer in a Mediterranean environment from central Chile, and also in warm (30°C) and cold (15°C) lab-acclimated birds. The results revealed a lack of seasonal variation in BMR, thermal conductance and in the activity of CS and COX. However, we found higher BMR and lower thermal conductance in cold-acclimated than in warm-acclimated birds. Also, total CS activity was higher in the flight muscles of cold-acclimated than in warm-acclimated birds. We found also a significant correlation between BMR and total CS activity in pectoral muscle. Although some authors have suggested that BMR mainly depends on the metabolic intensity and mass of internal organs, our results revealed that skeletal muscles such as the flight muscles may also affect BMR. Finally, differences in the acclimation and acclimatization responses in Rufous-collared sparrows suggest that large-scale oscillations in the physical environment might maintain the capacity for flexibility in thermogenic traits through generations.

We studied the putative effect of early life experience on the physiological flexibility of metabolic and osmoregulatory traits in the leaf-eared mouse, Phyllotis darwini, an altricial rodent inhabiting seasonal Mediterranean environments. Adult individuals were collected in central Chile and maintained in breeding pairs. Pups were isolated after weaning and acclimated to different temperatures (cold or warm) and water availability (unrestricted and restricted) until adulthood. Subsequently, individuals were re-acclimated to the opposite treatment. Rodents reared in the warm and subjected to water restriction had lower basal metabolic rate (BMR), total evaporative water loss (TEWL) and body mass (M b ) compared with those developing in the cold treatment; nevertheless, individuals subjected to warm temperatures had greater relative medullary thickness (RMT) and urine concentrating ability (UCA). Cold-reared rodents re-acclimated to warm conditions exhibited physiological flexibility of metabolic traits; however, their osmoregulatory attributes did not vary. Conversely, warm-reared rodents re-acclimated to cold had reduced RMT and UCA, but the metabolic traits of these individuals did not change. These results suggest a trade-off between metabolic performance and renal capabilities that might hinder physiological acclimation. Our results support the hypothesis of ontogenetic dependence of short-term acclimation in osmoregulatory and metabolic traits in P. darwini.