Feeding alters the preferred body temperature of Cururu toads, Rhinella diptycha (Anura, Bufonidae)

• Autor(a) principal: Clemente, Amanda C. [UNESP]
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Senzano, Luis M. [UNESP], Gavira, Rodrigo S. B., Andrade, Denis [UNESP]
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNESP
• Texto Completo: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpa.2020.110771; http://hdl.handle.net/11449/197278
• topic: Behavioural thermoregulation; Preferred body temperature; Digestion; Thermophilic response; Feeding biology

Ectothermic organisms depend primarily on external heat sources and behavioural adjustments to regulate body temperature. Under controlled conditions, in a thermal gradient, body temperature often clusters around a more or less defined range of preferred body temperatures (T-pref). However, T-pref may be modified in response to environmental parameters and/or physiological state. For example, meal ingestion is sometimes followed by a post-prandial thermophilic response leading to a transient increment in T-pref. Although thought to optimize digestive processes, its occurrence, magnitude, and possible determinants remains scarcely documented for anuran amphibians. Herein, we investigated whether the Cururu toad, Rhinella diptycha, exhibits a post-prandial thermophilic response by monitoring the body temperature of fasting and fed toads while they were maintained in a thermal gradient. We found that the toads' T-pref increased by about 13% from day 2 to 4 after feeding, in comparison with the T-pref recorded under fasting. Also, fed animals exhibited a broader range for T-pref at days 2 and 3 post-prandial, which reflects a greater level of locomotor activity compared to fasting individuals. We conclude that R. diptycha is capable to exhibit a post-prandial thermophilic response under the controlled conditions of a thermal gradient. Although this thermoregulatory adjustment is thought to optimize meal digestion yielding important energetic and ecological benefits, its occurrence in anuran amphibians in nature remains uncertain.