Does growth rate differ across altitudes in deer mice?
RUSSELL, GA*; HAMMOND, KA; Univ. of California, Riverside; Univ. of California White Mountain Research Station; Univ. of California, Riverside gruss001@student.ucr.edu When faced with a hypoxic challenge (e.g. high altitude), young growing mammals may respond by using energy that otherwise would have been allocated to growth. For example, an organism may accelerate growth of those organs or organ systems involved with oxygen acquisition at the cost of decreased whole animal growth rate or individual organ size. Alternatively, growth rate or adult size may not be compromised at high altitude. To investigate whether growth rate is different between low and high altitude, we measured body mass, snout-rump length (SR), and hindfoot length (HF) from 3-42 days of age in two groups of deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus): the first group underwent gestation and growth at elevation 340 m (low-born, LB); the second developed at 3800 m (high-born, HB). We fitted each character to a Gompertz growth