Unraveling the relationship between the topographic distribution patterns of skin temperature and perspiration response in dromedary camels

Abstract The question of how skin temperature ( T sk ), measured at different regions of the skin, can affect sudomotor activity and thus show a pattern in topographic distribution for the perspiration response ( PR ) rate in dromedary camels was approached and examined in this experiment. Under natural summer conditions, four healthy dromedary bulls, with a mean body mass of 420 kg and age of three years, were measured for T sk and PR in seven skin regions (i.e. head, neck, shoulder, axillary, hump, flank, and hip) twice daily [between 04:00–05:00 h with a mean ambient temperature ( T a ) of 26·78 °C and relative humidity ( RH ) of 18·25% as well as between 13:00–14:00 h with T a of 44·78 °C and RH of 5·90%] for two successive days. The experiment has clearly demonstrated some novel findings. In fact, results pointed out that T sk ( P T a . Meanwhile, PR unexpectedly manifested a uniform ( P  ≥ 0·05) distribution throughout the experiment, which appears to serve an eco-teleological purpose in dromedaries. Moreover, the obtained findings indicated that the hump and hip regions in particular can work as thermal windows, yet all seven skin regions can predict whole-skin PR fairly accurately (R 2  ≥ 0·90; P T sk in many regions can affect perspiration in camels (R 2 P T a ; therefore, the data attests that no specific relationship may exist between the topography of a perspiration pattern and the level of regional T sk . Some shortcomings were noted herein, but research dealing with this subject may very well improve our understanding of the basic functional mechanisms of the thermoregulatory system in this species.