Comparison between the coat temperature of the eland and dairy cattle by infrared thermography

Little is known about the thermoregulatory response of the eland, a tropical animal often raised in temperate climate. We compared the surface temperature (T_s) of the eland with that of similarly sized Holstein–Friesian dairy cattle at three different ambient temperatures (T_a) to get better evidence about thermal response. The T_s of all body areas (neck, dewlap, trunk, body forepart, barrel, body hind part, forelimb and rear limb) did not differ at T_a 29.2 °C, but at T_a 12.5 °C all the areas of the eland (except the neck) had lower mean T_s than those areas in cattle. At T_a 0.4 °C, only the eland dewlap had a lower T_s and the eland neck had a higher T_s than that in cattle.