Chapter 49, Problem 4Q

Summary Introduction

To review:

The limitations of keeping the animals in captivity with an adequate amount of food for an experiment to study the adaptive advantage of the pulmonary bypass shunt.

Introduction:

An experiment was carried out in order to study the adaptive advantage of the pulmonary bypass shunt or the aortic shunt in alligators. The shunt was surgically removed in a group of alligators, while another group of alligators in which a similar sham surgery was performed was used as the control. Both the groups were further divided into two groups. One of these led a sedentary life and the other was exercised three times a week. All the animals were given enough food throughout the study.