| Abstrakt: |
Episodes of normothermic levels of body temperature over a short time during hibernation were compared in hedgehogs living in the Moscow region and ground squirrels inhabiting Yakutsk. The results of superposed epoch analysis showed that although the distance between the observation sites was about 5000 km and hedgehogs and ground squirrels lived in different places, there was a connection between episodes of normothermic levels of body temperature in the animals studied: the maximum number of short-term normothermia episodes in hedgehogs was observed on the same days that ground squirrels woke up. A 4-h biorhythm was established in the diurnal dynamics of wakefulness: the largest number of returns to normothermia was recorded both in hedgehogs and ground squirrels, according to local solar time within the time intervals 0–1 a.m, 4–5 a.m., 8–9 a.m., 12 a.m.–1 p.m., 4–5 p.m., and 8–9 p.m. It was shown that the episodes of normothermia were associated with the intensity fluctuations of secondary cosmic rays recorded by a neutron monitor. The noise intensity of silicon transistor and temperature sensors, which is small enough to be directly affected by extremely low variations in cosmic rays, correlated with the expressiveness of fluctuations in the neutron count. We believe that the magnitude of fluctuations in neutron monitor count rate is only a marker of a biotopic agent that has not yet been identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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