> >Poring through the latest batch of monographs in the "Birds of North America"
> >project, I spied this gem from the "Metabolism and Temperature Regulation"
> >section of the clark's Nutcracker account:
> >
> >"...nutcracker at -65C in laboratory maintained oxygen consumption of 7.4
> >ml/g/h (42.0 W/kg) for 55 min (M. L. Laudenslager and Diana F. Tomback unpubl.,
> >cited in: Tomback, D. F. 1982. Dispersal of whitebark pine seeds by Clark's
> >Nutcracker: a mutualism hypothesis. J. Anim. Ecol. 51: 451-467)."

-65*C (-85*F if I did the calculation right) is mighty cold. What is the
typical low temperature that a Clark's Nutcracker has to survive on a
mountaintop in mid-winter?

Kelly Cassidy