One method burrowing animals are hypothesized to use in adapting to the presumed hypoxic subterranean environment is increasing the oxygen-carrying capacity of blood. A number of recent studies have examined hematologic parameters in laboratory-reared naked mole-rats, but not in animals living under natural atmospheric conditions. To our knowledge, blood chemistry parameters have never been systematically assessed in a fossorial mammal. In this study we examined the blood of wild naked mole-rats in Kenya and Ethiopia to determine whether their blood chemistry differs significantly from naked mole-rats born and living in captivity. We also compared our results to published values for hystricomorphs, other subterranean rodents, and surface-dwelling rodents of similar size.
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13 June 2020
Hematologic adaptation to the subterranean environment by the naked mole-rat, Heterocephalus glaber (Ctenohystrica: Heterocephalidae)
Susanne Holtze,
Rosie Koch,
Thomas Bernd Hildebrandt,
Alemayehu Lemma,
Karol Szafranski,
Matthias Platzer,
Fitsum Alemayehu,
Frank Goeritz,
Stan Braude
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Journal of Mammalogy
Vol. 101 • No. 4
September 2020
Vol. 101 • No. 4
September 2020
Bathyergidae
blood chemistry
blood count
COMPARATIVE
ecophysiology
Fossorial
Hematocrit