BODY TEMPERATURES IN SOME AUSTRALIAN MAMMALS. III. CETACEA (MEGAPTERA)

¹ School of Physiology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, and Departments of Zoology and of Physiology, University of Wisconsin, Madison 6, Wisconsin

1. A series of some 250 body temperature measurements were made on 20 humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) from the east coast of Australia. The distribution in the animal was plotted by means of a series of ventro-dorsal temperature profiles. Inverted temperature profiles were sometimes found, indicating the presence of internal masses of cold water and offering an explanation for the aberrant temperature values sometimes reported for whales.

2. Maximum values were found posteriorly near the umbilicus and the genital opening, and at a depth of 3.3 feet. The average was 36.0°; and there was no correlation with sex, size (33-40 ft.), or time after death (0.5-18 hrs.). This body temperature is close to the mean of literature values for whales (35.8°) and, as well, for smaller cetaceans (36.4°), but is appreciably below that for the Pinnipedia (37.3°).