Common tenrecs (Tenrec ecaudatus) reduce oxygen consumption in hypoxia and in hypercapnia without concordant changes to body temperature or heart rate

Common tenrecs (Tenrec ecaudatus) are fossorial mammals that use burrows during both active and hibernating seasons in Madagascar and its neighboring islands. Prevailing thought was that tenrecs hibernate for 8–9 months individually, but 13 tenrecs were removed from the same sealed burrow 1 m deep from the surface. Such group hibernation in sealed burrows presumably creates a hypoxic and/or hypercapnic environment and suggests that this placental mammal may have an increased tolerance to hypoxia and hypercapnia. Higher tolerances to hypoxia and hypercapnia have been documented for other mammals capable of hibernation and to determine if this is the case for tenrecs, we exposed them to acute hypoxia (4 h of 16 or 7% O₂), progressive hypoxia (2 h of 16, 10 and 4% O₂), or progressive hypercapnia (2 h of 2, 5 and 10% CO₂) at cold (16 °C) or warm (28 °C) ambient temperatures (T_a). Oxygen equilibrium curves were also constructed on the whole blood of tenrecs at 10, 25, and 37 °C to determine if hemoglobin (Hb)-O₂ affinity contributes to hypoxia tolerance. In animals held at 16 °C, normoxic and normocapnic levels of oxygen consumption rate ( \({\dot{\text{V}}\text{O}}_{2}\) ${\dot{\text{V}}\text{O}}_2$ ), body temperature (T_b), and heart rate (HR) were highly variable between individuals. This inter-individual variation was greatly reduced in animals held at 28 °C for oxygen consumption rate and body temperature. Both hypoxia (acute and progressive) and progressive hypercapnia led to decreases in \({\dot{\text{V}}\text{O}}_{2}\) ${\dot{\text{V}}\text{O}}_2$ as well as the variation in \({\dot{\text{V}}\text{O}}_{2}\) ${\dot{\text{V}}\text{O}}_2$ between animals held at 16 °C. The fall in oxygen consumption rate in 7% O₂ independent of changes in body temperature in tenrecs held at 16 °C is unique and not consistent with the typical hypoxic metabolic response seen in other hibernating species that depends on concomitant falls in T_b. In animals held at 28 °C, exposure to O₂ levels as low as 4% and CO₂ levels as high as 10% had no significant effect on \({\dot{\text{V}}\text{O}}_{2}\) ${\dot{\text{V}}\text{O}}_2$ , HR, or T_b, indicative of high tolerance to both hypoxia and hypercapnia. High variation in heart rate remained between individuals in all gas compositions and at all temperatures. Tenrec Hb–O₂ affinity was similar to other homeothermic placental mammals and likely does not contribute to the increased hypoxia tolerance. Ultimately, our results suggest changes in T_a dictate physiological responses to hypoxia or hypercapnia in tenrecs, responses more characteristic of reptiles than of most placental mammals. Given that numerous anatomical and physiological characteristics of tenrecs suggest that they may be representative of an ancestral placental mammal, our findings suggest the typical hypoxic metabolic response evolved later in mammalian evolution.