Exercise-generated heat contributes to thermoregulation by Gambel’s quail in the cold

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the allocation of exercise-generated heat and resting metabolic heat production during cold exposure. We tested the hypothesis that, during cold exposure, exercise-generated heat contributes to the fulfillment of the thermostatic require-ment. Our assumption was that the thermostatic requirement is higher for exercising than for resting birds in still air because of the disruption of boundary and plumage insulation layers. We predicted that, during moderate exercise, the metabolic heat production of exercising birds would be higher than that for resting birds in still air but would not differ significantly from the metabolic heat generated by resting birds exposed to similar convective conditions. To test our hypothesis we measured whole-animal oxygen consumption of Gambel's quail (Callipepla gambelii Gambel) running in a circular metabolic chamber and at rest in still air at ambient temperatures below the animal's lower critical temperature. We compared these data to previous data for Gambel's quail at rest exposed to wind at a speed equal to the running speed used in our experiments. In addition t