Measuring the energy expenditure and water flux in free-ranging alpacas (Lama pacos) in the Peruvian Andes using the doubly labelled water technique

Energy expenditure and water flux were measured in free-ranging alpacas Lama pacos, a South American camelid, on natural pastures of the Peruvian Andes (altitude: 4,400 m above sea level). Water influx rate (WIR) was estimated in 16 males (age 2 years, weight 48.5 +/- 8.6 kg) labelled with (2)H. In addition, the field metabolic rate (FMR) was measured in four of these animals labelled with both an oxygen ((18)O) and a hydrogen ((2)H) isotope. The WIR averaged 3.62 L H(2)O/day and the mean total body water 33.1 kg, equal to 68.2% of body weight (BW). The FMR of the four doubly labelled animals was 14.05 MJ/day. New allometric equations were calculated describing the relationships between WIR or FMR and BW, respectively, including published data on ruminants and the present alpaca results. The regression equation indicates that daily WIR scales to a similar metabolic size (kilograms of BW(0.94)) in alpacas than in wild or domesticated ruminants and camelids originating from and and semiarid habitats. The resulting regression equation for FMR explained over 99% of the variation and corresponded to the function FMR (kilojoules per day) = 1079 (kilograms of BW(0.668)) (n = 5, r(2) = 0.995, P < 0.001). The FMR measured in this study, the first reported for a South American camelid species, suggests that free-ranging alpacas have similar energy expenditures on a metabolic weight basis as other wild ruminants living under harsh climatic conditions..