Abstract
An increasing number of studies in recent years have attempted to determine how the individuals in a population survive in harsh environments. Few free-living animals, if any, spend their entire life cycle in constant conditions. Most are exposed to a wide variety of physical and biological factors which fluctuate, either with reasonably predictable periodicity (for example, temperature, light, salinity, etc.) or more irregularly (for example, population density, food supply, rainfall, etc.). Even those factors, such as temperature, which generally follow a predictable pattern (that is, higher during day than night) may vary in intensity from day to day. Short-term adjustments to changes in the physical and biological environment are achieved through physiological and behavioural responses. This paper examines some responses of the Quokka, Setonix brachyurus, to varying temperature and humidity regimes under laboratory conditions, relating them to observed behaviour in the field. For further studies of Australian macropods in relation to their environments see Tyndale-Biscoe (1973), Russell (1974), Waring, Moir and Tyndale-Biscoe (1966) and Kaufmann (1974).
Dr Wayne Packer was educated at Whittier College and Stamford University, USA. Awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Western Australia, he is now a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Zoology, with research interests in ecology and behaviour of marsupials.
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© 1977 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Packer, W.C. (1977). A metabolic study of the Quokka, Setonix brachyurus, in varying regimes of temperature and humidity. In: Stonehouse, B., Gilmore, D. (eds) The Biology of Marsupials. Studies in Biology, Economy and Society. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-02721-7_22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-02721-7_22
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