Effect Of Hypercapnia Upon Ventilatory Responses In Porcupines And Woodchucks: Rodent Characteristic Or Burrower's Adaptation?

Abstract

The purpose of this experiment was to compare the ventilatory response to acute environmental hypercapnia in the woodchuck and in a nonfossorial Control: the porcupine. Respiratory measurements of tidal volume (V-p), breath frequency (f), inspiratory (T|) and expiratory (T^) times were made using the barometric method while the animals breathed normoxic room air (20% O2) or hypercapnic (5% CO2) gases. The woodchuck's ventilatory response to hypercapnic environmental conditions is significantly different from that of the porcupine in both the degree and pattern. These differences may reflect genetic adaptation to its semi-fossorial habitat