Comparison of Procyon lotor with Other Procyonids
Procyon lotor has a much higher mass-specific Ḣb than other procyonids ([Table 7]). To quantify the magnitude of this difference, we compared the measured value for Procyon lotor with one calculated for it from a mass-specific least-squares regression equation ([Eq. 6]; R2 = 0.78) derived from data for those procyonids with lower than predicted Ḣb: Potos flavus, Procyon cancrivorus, Nasua nasua, Nasua narica, and Bassariscus astutus ([Table 7]).
| Ḣb = 2.39·m-0.25 | Eq. 6 |
Ḣb in Eq. 6 is basal metabolism (mL O2·g-1·h-1) and m is body mass (g). Measured values of Ḣb for Procyon lotor were 1.45 to 1.86 times greater than those predicted for it by Eq. 6 ([Table 8]).
Table 8.—Basal metabolism (mL O2·g-1·h-1) of Procyon lotor as predicted by [Eq. 6] (Ḣb = 2.39·m-0.25). Body masses, used to calculate predicted values, and measured values were taken from [Table 7].
| Season and sex | Predicted | Measured/Predicted | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summer | |||
| Trapped male | 0.29 | 1.86 | |
| Captive male | 0.29 | 1.59 | |
| Captive female | 0.29 | 1.45 | |
| Winter | |||
| Captive male | 0.28 | 1.68 | |
| Captive female | 0.29 | 1.59 | |