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Updated: Oct 1, 2026

Training Rats to Voluntarily Dive Underwater: Investigations of the Mammalian Diving Response
Published on: November 12, 2014
Diving physiology of birds: a history of studies on polar species
1Center for Marine Biotechnology/Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, 92093-0204, La Jolla, CA, USA. pponganis@ucsd.edu
Abstract:
Our knowledge of avian diving physiology has been based primarily on research with polar species. Since Scholander's 1940 monograph, research has expanded from examination of the 'diving reflex' to studies of free-diving birds, and has included laboratory investigations of oxygen stores, muscle adaptations, pressure effects, and cardiovascular/metabolic responses to swimming exercise. Behavioral and energetic studies at sea have shown that common diving durations of many avian species exceed the calculated aerobic diving limits (ADL). Current physiological research is focused on factors, such as heart rate and temperature, which potentially affect the diving metabolic rate and duration of aerobic diving.
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