The desert antelope shrinks the heart and liver for survival

In order to survive in the arid and hot desert in Saudi Arabia, antelopes have adopted a strange strategy: they shrink the size of the heart and liver, the two parts need a lot of oxygen, in order to secrete respiratory savings during the driest months.

(Photo: TN)

According to researcher Stephane Otrowski of the Saudi Arabian National Wildlife Research Center, this helps them reduce the amount of water evaporated during each breath.

The researchers noted that the elves have the weakest evapotranspiration rate that people have ever encountered in claws living in arid regions. Compared to the reduction in the mass of the heart and liver parts, the antelope's stomach is less changed because it absorbs water through the consumption of plants.

Otrowski, Mesochina and Williams scientists have also discovered that in the months when water and food are the most depleted, desert antelopes store more fat in their brains. Thus the metabolism in the brain is not affected.

These studies have been published in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology.

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