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A Self-Organising Model of Thermoregulatory Huddling

Fig 7

Testable predictions of the model.

By approximating the huddle as a single super-organism, we are able to derive the following prediction from our theory of thermoregulatory huddling as the self-organising product of simple local interactions between pups. Accordingly the key parameter is the term , where G is the rate of thermogenesis and k₁ is the thermal conductance of each pup. The model predicts that either increasing thermogenesis (e.g., by pharmaceutically enhancing the action of brown adipose tissue) or decreasing the thermal conductance (e.g., by insulating each pup) will increase both the critical ambient temperature (single-headed arrow) and the range of ambient temperatures (double-headed arrow) over which the temperature of the huddle is stable. Confirming this prediction in future experiments would provide strong support for our description of the huddle as a self-organising system.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004283.g007