Ph.D., Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, 2011 / The rock hyrax, Procavia capensis, is a social diurnal mammal that typically lives
in colonies on rocky outcrops and is found throughout most parts of Southern Africa.
The aim of this thesis was to describe the sleep phenomenology of the rock hyrax. By
means of immunohistochemistry the location and distribution of the cholinergic,
catecholaminergic, serotonergic, orexinergic, histaminergic, and the GABAergic
systems were described. For the most part these systems and their terminal network
distributions followed the general mammalian organisational plan; however, several
features, potentially unique to the rock hyrax, were found. These include the presence
of cholinergic neurons in the AD and AV nuclei of the dorsal thalamus, parvo- and
magnocellular divisions of the cholinergic LDT and PPT nuclei. A dense orexinergic
terminal network distribution was noted in the regions coincident with the AD
nucleus, a feature only observed in other diurnal mammals. Parvalbumin neurons did
not show any association to the sleep related nuclei, whereas calbindin and calretinin
neurons were found in all sleep related areas, though with differing densities and
some homogeneities. The physiological measurable parameters of sleep were
recorded continuously for 72 h under both solitary and social conditions and
compared to determine whether differences existed. The results revealed that no major
differences existed between the social and solitary conditions, but sleep intensity and
REM duration (particularly REM0) was more pronounced in the social condition.
REM was ambiguous in these animals, and led to its subdivision into REM1 and
REM0. It is possible that REM1 could be a form of low voltage slow wave sleep, but
further investigation is required. If REM1 is a form of NonREM sleep it would imply
that the rock hyrax has the lowest amount of REM sleep of any terrestrial mammal
studied to date.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/11371 |
| Date | 28 February 2012 |
| Creators | Gravett, Nadine |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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