Hibernation versus Daily Torpor in Mammals and Birds: Physiological Variables and Classification of Torpor Patterns

• DOI: 10.1086/physzool.68.6.30163788
• Publication Date: 2016-01-07T16:10:33Z
• Authors: Fritz Geiser; Thomas Ruf
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 03 medical and health sciences

Hibernation and daily torpor are usually considered to be two distinct patterns of heterothermia. In the present comparison we evaluated (1) whether physiological variables of torpor from 104 avian and mammalian species warrant the distinction between hibernation and daily torpor as two different states of torpor and (2), if so, whether this distinction is best based on maximum torpor bout duration, minimum body temperature ($T_{b}$), minimum metabolic rate during torpor, or the reduction of metabolic rate expressed as percentage of basal metabolism (BMR). Initially, animals were grouped into species displaying either daily torpor or prolonged torpor (hibernation) according to observations from original sources. Both cluster and discriminant analyses supported this division, and further analyses were therefore based on these two groups. Frequency distributions for all tvariables tested differed significantly (P < 0.001) between daily torpor and hibernation. The average maximum torpor bout duration was 355...