Ecological Physiology of Daily Torpor and Hibernation

Fritz Geiser grew up in a small rural village near Heidelberg, Germany. He was fascinated by animals from early in life and studied Biology at the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart. He travelled to Australia after his undergraduate degree on a DAAD scholarship to work at CSIRO at the Macquarie University in Sydney. He received a PhD from the Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, held a Humboldt Fellowship at the University of Washington in Seattle, USA, and a post-doctoral position the University of Adelaide. He has worked in Zoology at the University of New England, Armidale, Australia, since 1988, but during this time has conducted projects in Argentina (Patagonia), Austria, Canada, China, Germany, South Africa and the USA. He is interested in comparative and environmental physiology of animals and most of his work concerns ecological physiology of birds and mammals especially with regard to hibernation and daily torpor. He has published over 260 papers on these and relatedtopics and was awarded a Madgwick Distinguished Professorship at University of New England and a Discovery Outstanding Researcher Award from the Australian Research Council.

• Chapter 1. Introduction, Background and Definitions.- Chapter 2. Quantifying Torpor.- Chapter 3. Diversity and Geography of Torpor and Heterothermy.- Chapter 4. Patterns and Expression of Torpor.- Chapter 5. Physiology and Thermal Biology.- Chapter 6. Seasonality of Daily Torpor and Hibernation.- Chapter 7. Ecological and Behavioural Aspects of Torpor.- Chapter 8. Torpor during Reproduction and Development.- Chapter 9. Dietary Lipids, Thermoregulation and Torpor Expression.- Chapter 10. Evolution of Endothermy and Torpor.- Chapter 11. Concluding Remarks.