Hi everybody!

 

I was wondering, if performing an experiment to measure metabolic heat production with varying temps from -20 to 50 degrees C in a mammal, what would be the effect if you shaved off its fur?

Would convective forces play a larger role even if there is no wind? Would the lower critical limit have a greater slope after shaving the fur off? Or would the lower critical limit just occur at a higher temp (rather than 10 C it occurs at 20 C)? Because there is no wind, I'm wondering if the ambient temperature would cause a steeper slope in the lower critical limit, or if the slope would only be steeper once applying wind.

 

Thanks!

While I must apologize for not being to help you out here with past experience in running such experiments, I would actually suggest that you run the tests yourself, to find out just what the curves would curve like. Then you will have the answer from your own studies--although it looks like it would be quite involved, and take a good amount of time.