Cooler than camels
By Hayley Birch
Sand gazelles have been crowned the kings of cool following studies of water loss in the desert mammals at a national wildlife centre in Saudi Arabia.
The team carrying out the study resorted to starvation tactics with a small herd of the goat-sized animals, in hope of making them spill their secret to staying cool. Man, these gazelles must have been cursing when they realised their luck had finally run out. Several million years of natural selection in the stifling heat of the Arabian Desert, and then this? Not content with depriving them of food and water, the team then proceeded to sacrifice the poor little fellows in order to measure their vital organs.
Animals subjected to long-term starvation lost around a third less water than a better nourished group. It is thought that gazelles achieve this, bizarrely, by shrinking the organs that normally consume high levels of oxygen, allowing them to breathe less and therefore reducing water loss. The hearts and livers of the starved group were measured at between 54% and 79% the size of their amply fed counterparts.
It's a neat trick and beats your average camel's efforts. Despite their water storing humps, Joseph Williams, co-author of the new gazelle paper, claims sand gazelles beat camels hands down in the water storing stakes. Perhaps we should follow their lead and trying starving ourselves during the current heat wave.
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