PRE AND POSTPRANDIAL THERMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF GREEN IGUANAS (IGUANA IGUANA)
Abstract
Abstract The body temperature of 10 clinically healthy green iguanas (Iguana iguana) was measured using a thermographic camera (FLIR E6, Flir Systems Sweden) before and after the food was offered. For each animal there were performed a total of 6 measurements (3 before feeding and 3 after the food was offered). The purpose of this experiment was to observe the thermographic pattern of the body before and after the feeding, since herbivore reptiles tend to bask after the feeding to increase the body temperature that will help them afterwards digest the food. The animals were housed in individual vivariums with every animal having a basking spot available. The pictures were taken outside the vivarium in an adjacent room. The animals were handled with gloves and transported in a cardboard box in order to avoid heat transfer between the handler and the iguana that would have produced thermal artefacts. Each individual was placed on a table on a styrofoam slate, again, to avoid the heat transfer between the table and the animal`s body. For each animal a total of 4 pictures were taken (up, front, left and right). The pictures were analysed with the FLIR Tools program that is provided by the manufacturer and 3 temperatures were taken into consideration (the head temperature, body temperature on the right side and body temperature on the left side). The temperatures were compared between them and with the temperature of the vivariums that consisted of the average between the temperature in 3 different spots (basking spot, the feeding bowl site and the coldest spot) measured with an infrared thermometer GM300 (Benetech, China). The temperature of the body was dependent on the vivarium temperature and it was a significant temperature difference between the measurements before the feeding and after the feeding. Also we discovered a significant difference between the head temperature and the body temperature on the left side before the feeding that disappeared after the animals ate. There was also a significant difference between the temperature on right side and on left side of the animals both before and after the feeding. No significant temperature difference was observed between the head and the right side of the body neither before nor after the feeding.
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