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A comparative study of resting metabolic rate was conducted for the temperature range 10-37 degreesC for four rodent species, northern three-toed jerboa (Dipus sagitta) (body mass, Mb 79.2+/-6.8 g, n = 25), midday gerbil (Meriones meridianus) (Mb = 45.0+/-8.1 g, n = 10), desert hamster (Phodopus roborovskii) (Mb = 15.4+/-2.9 g, n = 26), and striped hamster (Cricetulus barabensis) (Mb = 24.8+/-4.0 g, n = 7) in the Ordos desert in summer (July), 1997. The minimum resting metabolic rates were 1.14+/-0.25 ml O-2/g.h for three-toed jerboa, 1.36+/-0.3 ml O-2/g.h for midday gerbil, 2.98+/-0.65 ml O-2/g.h for desert hamster, and 2.75+/-0.37 ml O-2/g.h for striped hamster. The thermal neutral zones (TNZ) were wide in the three desert species that was 26similar to37 degreesC in jerboa, 27similar to35 degreesC in gerbil, and 28-34 degreesC in desert hamster, respectively. For the non-desert species, striped hamster, it was 2630 degreesC.

These results do not confirm the hypothesis that desert rodents generally have lower metabolic levels than non-desert species. The high metabolic rates of these four rodent species were interpreted to be influenced by the stable availability of food resources and low environmental temperature in the Ordos Plateau. Our results partly support the hypothesis that the metabolism characteristics are determined by food resources and environment temperature for animals living in and regions.