Antelope adaptations to counteract overheating and water deficit in arid environments  

作　　者：David BLANK LI Yaoming 

机构地区：[1]Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia,Bishkek,Kyrgyzstan [2]State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology,Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Urumqi 830011,China [3]University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100049,China

出　　处：《Journal of Arid Land》2022年第10期1069-1085,共17页干旱区科学（英文版）

基　　金：the Third Xinjiang Scientific Expedition Program(2021xjkk0603).

摘　　要：Many arid areas have very severe climates with extremely high summer temperatures,strong solar radiation,and a lack of drinking water during the driest season.Therefore,antelopes living in arid areas are forced to solve two main problems:avoiding overheating and maintaining water balance.Generally,there are physiological,morphological,and behavioral mechanisms for antelope adaptations to arid environments.Among the mechanisms,behavioral adjustments have a minimal cost and are activated first,while physiological mechanisms are the most energetically costly and involve adaptations to high temperatures when other mechanisms are insufficient.In previous publications,some examples of the antelope behavioral adaptations have been described only rarely,while in this review,we try to clarify all available information on the adaptations of antelopes living in arid areas to their native environments,paying particular attention to behavioral adjustments.Behavioral mechanisms,especially daily activity,diet and microclimate selection,and migrations,are so important and commonly used by antelopes in natural conditions,in which physiological mechanisms are usually not involved.Antelopes adjust their behaviors according to environmental changes so successfully that purely physiological mechanisms are discovered under laboratory conditions;for example,adaptive heterothermia or selective brain cooling phenomenon is difficult to observe in their natural habitats.This review provides a better understanding of the main behavioral mechanisms of antelope adaptations to arid environments and allows for the identification of the key factors for successful conservation of antelopes in their natural habitats.

关 键 词：ANTELOPES desert antelopes behavioral mechanisms drinking water water loss behaviors arid environments 

分 类 号：Q958[生物学—动物学]