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Is a black coat in the desert a means of saving metabolic energy?

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Abstract

Black goats of small body size (15–22 kg) dominate the herds of the Bedouins inhabiting the extreme deserts of the Middle East1; only a few white goats appear in such herds. Annual rainfall in these deserts varies from 15 to less than 150 mm; resources of food are sparse and watering points widely spaced. Summer is extremely hot and winter may be bitterly cold. Cloudy days are rare and solar radiation is immense all the year round2. Presumably, special adaptations would have been required in order to thrive in these harsh deserts. Can the black colour of the Bedouin goat be considered such an adaptation? Here, we have attempted to answer this question, and have found that by absorbing more of the Sun's energy on cold days, the temperature of the coat dramatically increased and the goat's oxygen consumption decreased significantly.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Razi Dmi'el, Avi Prevulotzky & Amiram Shkolnik

Authors
  1. Razi Dmi'el
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  2. Avi Prevulotzky
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  3. Amiram Shkolnik
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Dmi'el, R., Prevulotzky, A. & Shkolnik, A. Is a black coat in the desert a means of saving metabolic energy?. Nature 283, 761–762 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/283761a0

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