Scaling of CO2 production in the timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus), with comments on cost of growth in neonates and comparative patterns

To understand the bioenergetic fluxes of free-ranging timber rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus) better, we measured CO2 production rate of 83 snakes in response to body mass, body temperature, time of day, sex, and geographic locality (northwest Arkansas and coastal Virginia). Effects of body mass, temperature, time of day, and the temperature-by-time interaction were remarkably similar to effects reported for other rattlesnakes. We noted that C. horridus has relatively high, but precedented, Q(10) (3.71-4.78); however, the adaptive significance of this observation, if any, remains obscure. Once the confounding effect of body mass was statistically adjusted, C. horridus exhibited no sex-specific effects; however, there was a significant locality-by-time effect, which is of equivocal biological significance. In contrast to the findings of a recent review on cost of growth in neonatal reptiles, C. horridus neonates exhibited metabolic rates that were from 200% to 400% greater than expectations from the mass scaling of yearlings and older animals. We interpreted this as evidence for a cost of synthesis in growing neonates. We report regression equations for the estimation of resting CO2 production rate in C. horridus as a function of body mass, body temperature, and time of day. Our data contribute to a growing, comparative database documenting rattlesnakes as low-energy specialists.