Camp. Eockem. Pitysiol., 1971, Yol. 39A. pp. 653 to 656, Petgamon Press. Printed in (;‘tcat Britain

WATER TURNOVER IN COTURNIX QUAIL WITH INDIVIDU~ OBSERVATIONS ON A BURROWING OWL,

PET2 CONURE AND VULTURINE FISH EAGLE*

T. E. CHAPMAN? and L. 2. McFARLANDS

Departments of Physiological Sciences and Anatomy, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, Ca 95616

(Received 30 October 1970)

Abstract-l. The body-water half-life in cotumix quail was 2.1 days and the turnover was O-2 ml water/g body wt. per day. There was no evidence of sexual dimorphism. Male cotumix drank about 24 ml water/day, and it was calculated that about 95 per cent of the water turnover can be provided by free drinking water.

2. The half-life of body water was about 4 days in the burrowing owl, 7-8 days in the Petz conure and 6 days in the v&urine fish eagle.

3. The turnover of body water appeared to be related to body size.

INTRODUCTION

WATER, an essential part of all biochemical and physiological processes, is available to animals from three sources: (1) free water which is swallowed, (2) preformed water contained in food, and (3) oxidative or metabolic water produced by the catabolism of organic compounds. The relative importance of each source to a given species is a function of its habitat and behavior. Most studies of water balance in birds have utilized direct measurements of water intake and direct or indirect measurements of water loss. Bartholomew & Cade (1963) reviewed the water economy of land birds and discussed the need for understanding water kinetics. Recently tritiated water has been used to measure total body water and water turnover rates in the chicken (Chapm~ & Black, 1967) and road~nner (Ohmart i?t a/., 1970).

This study reports on the use of tritiated water to measure total body water and water turnover rates in a group of Japanese quail (Coturnix cot~mix japorzicu) under standard laboratory conditions. Individual observations were made on a western burrowing owl (S’eotyto c~nicu2aria hypogueu), northern Petz conure

* This study was supported in part by U.S.P.H.S. research grants GM-08183 and ES- 00054 and by N.A.S.A. research grant NGR-05-004-028.

t NIH trainee from U.S.P.H.S. training grant 2G-633-PATC-3. Present address: Department of Physiological Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State Uni- versity, Manhattan, Kansas 66502.

$ Part of this work was completed while the author held a NRC Postdoctoral Resident Research Associateship supported by N.A.S.A.

653

654 ‘r. E. CHAPMAN AND 1,. z. mFARLAND

(Aratinga canicularis eburnirostrum) and v&urine fish eagle (Gypohierax: angolemis) housed at the San Diego Zoological Gardens.

MATERlALS AND METHODS

Cotumix quail used were from University of California randombred line 908. Tritiated water (HTO) turnover studies were made on 5 adult male and 5 adult female quail placed in a largecommunity cage (15 in. x 16 in. x 25 in.) by sex. The cages were kept in a room at 23°C without humidity controls and with a lighting regimen of 16 hr light : 8 hr dark. Turkey starter mash (30 per cent protein) and water were supplied ad lib. The quaii were allowed to acclimate to the new surroundings for 5 days. This period was sufficient to stabilize their daify body weights to within 1 g. Each quail was injected via a brachial vein with 0.5 ml of a 0.9% sterile-saline solution containing 1 mC/ml of HTO. Blood samples (0.5 ml) were withdrawn the day following HTO injection and periodically thereafter for 12 days. The blood was taken into dry disodium versenate (Versene, Bersworth Chemical Co., Framingham, Mass.). Each blood sample was then lyophilized and counted as described previously (Chapman & Black, 1967).

Another group of six male coturnix were kept similarly and the average water consump- tion and body weight was recorded for 9 consecutive days in order to determine their ad lib. water consumption.

A similar procedure was used with the birds housed at the San Diego Zoo. The bur- rowing owl and Petz conure were kept in individual cages 18 in. x 18 in. x 24 in. and the vulturine fish eagle in a large flight cage. All birds received water ad lib. during the ex- periment. The burrowing ow1 was fed raw beef, the Petz conures were fed mixed dry seeds and the vulturine fish eagle was fed fresh fish and lettuce. Al1 food was given ad I&. according to the practices of the zoo. The average temperature range was 18-25°C and the average relati1.e humidity was 65 y’, .

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The kinetic characteristics of the body-water pool in the various birds studied

are presented in Table 1. The half-life of the body-water pool in the coturnix quail averaged about 2-l

days for both sexes. Although there is a sexual dimorphism in weight, there was no evidence of sexual dimorphism in body-water half-life as reported in chickens

(Chapman & Black, 1967). Coturnix have a water flux of about 0.2 ml water/g body wt. per day. Male coturnix consumed an average of 24-l ml water/day or 0,208 ml water/g body wt. per day (Table 2). It was calculated by comparing the daily water consumption (Table 2) and the daily water turnover (Table 1) that approxi- mately 95 per cent of the total water turnover could have been provided by drinking free water.

The carnivorous burrowing owl had a body-water half-life of about 4 days and a turnover of 0.073 ml water/g body wt. per day. These values are slightly less than those measured in the roadrunner maintained under desert-like conditions (Ohmart et al., 1970).

The Petz conure, a Mexican parrot, had a body-water half-life of 7-8 days and a turnover of 0.05 ml water/g body wt. per day.

The vu&urine fish eagle had a body-water half-life of about 59 days and a turnover of O-08 ml water/g body wt. per day.

WATER TURNOVER IN COTURNIX QUAIL 6.55

TABLE l-INTERSPECIES COMPARISON OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BODY-WATER POOL AS DETERMINED WITH TRITIATED WATER

Water pool size

Species Body wt.

(6)

7% (d) (ml)

Percentage Flux of body Turnover (ml/s water (ml/day) per day)

Cotumix quail Females : 105 2.37 62.1 59.2 18.1 0,172

107 2.06 68.9 64.5 23.2 0.217

3 105 1.97 59.0 56-2 20.7 0,196

7 125 2.01 79.5 63.6 27.4 0.219

9 145 2.28 94.7 65.3 2808 0.199

X* 117k7.9 2.14+0.08 72.8k6.5 618kl.7 23.6k2.0 0.201 kO.008

Males 4 110 1.74 70.8 64.3 28.2 0.256

5 112 2.25 76.7 68-5 23-S 0.210

6 110 2.26 72.2 65.6 22*1 0.201 8 100 2.28 69.5 69.5 21.1 0.211

10 95 1.98 61.5 64.8 21.5 0.226 x* lOSf3 2.10 k 0.11 70.1 rt 2.5 66.5 + 1.0 23.3 _+ 1.3 0.220 + 0.009

Burrowing owl 140 3.98 58.7 41.9 10.2 0.073

Petz conure Trial A 300 8.02 192.9 64.2 16.7 0.056

Trial B 325 7.08 193.0 59.4 18.9 0.058

Vulturine fish eagle 1.590 5.89

*X = mean it standard error.

1124.0 70.7 133.0 0.084

TABLE ~-AVERAGE DAILY WATER CONSUMPTION OF SIX MALE COTURNIX GIVEN WATER AND FOOD ad lib.

Day

Average

Body wt.

Water consumption

mUdaY ml/g per/day

114 19.6 0.172 114 18.0 0.158 115 22.0 o-191 114 22.8 o-200 114 26-8 0.235

118 33-o 0.280 117 22.0 0.188 118 27.0 0.229 118 26.1 0.221

116&l 24,l f 1.5 0.208 + 0.012

6.56 T. E. CHAPMAN AND L. Z. MCFARLAND

In several mammalian species there is a correlation between the turnover of body water and body weight (Richmond et al., 1962); however, this generalization does not hold for cattle (Black et al., 1964) which have a body-water flux greater than predicted from the weight relationship, and a body-water half-life similar to

that of the rat. From the data collected on various avian species to date, there also appears to be a relationship between body weight and body-water flux (Ohmart et al., 1970). In birds, however, the turnover of body water appears to be proportional to the 0.69 power of body weight rather than to the 0.80 power of body weight as

reported in mammals (Richmond et d., 1962). This indicates that relative to body weight birds have a slower turnover of body water than mammals. The relation between body-water flux and body weight of the avian species described in this

paper fits the correlation described by Ohmart et al. (1970). The data for the avian species published to date do not, however, fit the mammalian correlation estab- lished by Richmond et al. (1962) as about one-half of the data points fall below the regression line (coturnix quail, roadrunner under moderate conditions, hen) and one-half fall below the 95 per cent confidence limits for the regression line (roadrunner under desert conditions, cock, burrowing owl, Petz conure and vulturine fish eagle). This indicates that water flux in avian species is proportional to a lower power of body weight than in mammals and is in accord with the

relationship suggested by Ohmart et al. (1970).

Acknowledgements-T. E. Chapman held a Robert P. Scripps Summer Fellowship while at the San Diego Zoo during the work on the wild species. The friendly cooperation of the staff of the San Diego Zoo and especially of K. C. Lint, Curator of Birds, was greatly appreciated.

REFERENCES

BARTHOLOMEW G. A. & CADE T. J. (1963) The water economy of land birds. Auk 80, 504- 539.

BLACK A. L., BAKER N. F., BARTLEY J. C., CHAPMAN T. E. & PHILLIPS R. W. (1964) Water turnover in cattle. Science 144, 876-878.

CHAPMAN T. E. & BLACK A. L. (1967) Water turnover in chickens. Poultry Sci. 46,761-765. OHMART R. D., CHAPMAN T. E. & MCFARLAND L. Z. (1970) Water turnover in roadrunners

using tritium oxide. Auk. (In press.) RICHMOND C. R., LANGHAM W. H. & TRUJILLO T. T. (1962) Comparative metabolism of

tritiated water by mammals. J. cell. con@. Physiol. 59, 45-53.

Key Word Index-Water turnover in birds; Cotumix coturnix japonica; Gypohierax angolensis; Speotyto cunicularia hypogaea; Aratinga canicularis eburnirostrum.