My talk focuses on the importance of behavioral thermoregulation in tropical mammals. I will briefly present findings from my previous research showing that the giant anteater—a species with low capacity for physiological thermoregulation—strongly modulates its activity period and selects forested areas in response to thermal stress. This raises an important question: are these strong behavioral responses directly linked to the species’ low capacity for physiological thermoregulation? In other words, can we predict the importance of forests as thermal refuges for other tropical mammals living in heterogeneous landscapes based on their thermophysiological traits? This is the central focus of our ongoing research. So far, we have analyzed movement data from eight additional tropical mammal species to investigate this question. I will share preliminary results suggesting that, in general, yes—species with lower capacity for physiological thermoregulation tend to rely more on forested areas for thermal buffering. However, there are probably some notable exceptions. We are currently integrating movement data from additional species to refine our understanding of these patterns. If a consistent relationship can be established, physiological traits could be used to predict which species are more vulnerable to deforestation from a thermoregulatory perspective.
Speaker:
Aline Giroux, PhD
School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences,
University of Florida
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