Quantifying radiative heat gain in animals

Abstract

This paper summarizes some general approaches to quantifying radiative environments and estimating radiative heat loads on animals. Because natural radiation environments can be very complex, practical limits to their evaluation are most likely to arise from difficulties in analyzing their patchy nature. Accurately estimating radiative heat loads accrued by animals is particularly likely to be limited under practical conditions by difficulties in determining effective animal surface area and quantifying effects of radiation penetrating into fur or feather coats. © 1992 by the American Society of Zoologists.