Dietary fatty acid composition and the hibernation patterns in free-ranging arctic ground squirrels

Laboratory experiments have demonstrated that the amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in the diet before hibernation influences patterns of mammalian torpor. The hibernation ability of ground squirrels is greatest (longest torpor bouts, greatest number of animals entering torpor) when the PUFA content of their fall diets is 33-74 mg/g, under laboratory conditions. The extent to which natural fall diets both (a) vary in PUFA content and (b) influence the torpor patterns of free-ranging populations of hibernating mammals is unknown, however. We conducted a 3-yr study on the diet PUFA contents and subsequent hibernation patterns of free-ranging arctic ground squirrels (Spermophilus parryii) in the Brooks Range of Alaska. We found that the PUFA contents of fall diets varied more than threefold among individuals. Our study also revealed that arctic ground squirrels that consumed a moderate-PUFA (33-74 mg/g) diet had (a) longer torpor bouts, (b) fewer arousals from torpor, (c) shorter arousal periods, (d) more days in torpor, and (e) greater probability of persisting in the population than those that consumed a high-PUFA (>74 mg/g) diet during the fall. No animals were demonstrated to have consumed a diet representing low-PUFA (<33 mg/g) values. Our study is therefore the first to demonstrate that estimated dietary PUFA levels of a free-ranging hibernator influence subsequent torpor patterns.