Scaling the duration of activity relative to body mass results in similar locomotor performance and metabolic costs in lizards

Abstract

This study examines the physiological response to locomotion in lizards following bouts of activity scaled to body mass. We evaluate this method as a way to compare locomotor energetics among animals of varying body mass. Because most of the costs of brief activity in reptiles are repaid during recovery we focus on the magnitude and duration of the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). Lizards ranging from 3 g to 2400 g were run on a treadmill for durations determined by scaling the run time of each animal to the 1/4 power of body mass and allowing each animal to run at its maximum speed for that duration. This protocol resulted in each species traveling the same number of body lengths and incurring similar factorial increases in V̇O2. Following activity, EPOC volume (mlO2) and the cost of activity per body length traveled (mlO2 per body length) scaled linearly with body mass. This study shows that the mass-specific costs of activity over an equivalent number of body lengths are similar across a broad range of body mass and does not show the typical patterns of allometric scaling seen when cost of locomotion are expressed on a per meter basis. Under field conditions larger animals are likely to travel greater absolute distances in a given bout of activity than smaller animals but may travel a similar number of body lengths. This study suggests that if locomotor costs are measured on a relative scale (ml O2 per body length traveled), which reflects these differences in daily movement distances, that locomotor efficiency is similar across a wide range of body mass.