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Journal of Arid Land
Journal of Arid Land  2022, Vol. 14 Issue (10): 1069-1085    DOI: 10.1007/s40333-022-0076-y
Review article     
Antelope adaptations to counteract overheating and water deficit in arid environments
David BLANK1, LI Yaoming1,2,3,*()
1Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
2State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
3University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
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Abstract  

Many arid areas have very severe climates with extremely high summer temperatures, strong solar radiation, and a lack of drinking water during the driest season. Therefore, antelopes living in arid areas are forced to solve two main problems: avoiding overheating and maintaining water balance. Generally, there are physiological, morphological, and behavioral mechanisms for antelope adaptations to arid environments. Among the mechanisms, behavioral adjustments have a minimal cost and are activated first, while physiological mechanisms are the most energetically costly and involve adaptations to high temperatures when other mechanisms are insufficient. In previous publications, some examples of the antelope behavioral adaptations have been described only rarely, while in this review, we try to clarify all available information on the adaptations of antelopes living in arid areas to their native environments, paying particular attention to behavioral adjustments. Behavioral mechanisms, especially daily activity, diet and microclimate selection, and migrations, are so important and commonly used by antelopes in natural conditions, in which physiological mechanisms are usually not involved. Antelopes adjust their behaviors according to environmental changes so successfully that purely physiological mechanisms are discovered under laboratory conditions; for example, adaptive heterothermia or selective brain cooling phenomenon is difficult to observe in their natural habitats. This review provides a better understanding of the main behavioral mechanisms of antelope adaptations to arid environments and allows for the identification of the key factors for successful conservation of antelopes in their natural habitats.

Key words： antelopes      desert antelopes      behavioral mechanisms      drinking water      water loss      behaviors      arid environments     
Received: 04 June 2022      Published: 31 October 2022
Corresponding Authors: *LI Yaoming (E-mail: lym@ms.xjb.ac.cn)
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David BLANK, LI Yaoming. Antelope adaptations to counteract overheating and water deficit in arid environments. Journal of Arid Land, 2022, 14(10): 1069-1085.

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http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-022-0076-y     OR     http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2022/V14/I10/1069

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