Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Gardiner, Jayne

Area of Concentration

Marine Biology

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to successfully obtain a reliable method of measuring the heart rate of elasmobranchs that is noninvasive and eliminates confounding factors common in present heart rate monitoring techniques. DST-centi HRT loggers have successfully recorded heart rate without the use of leads in bony fish, but elasmobranch trials have not been successful. Implanting high amplitude DST-centi HRT loggers, in combination with DSTcenti ACT loggers, into the abdominal cavity of a member of Chiloscyllium plagiosum, the whitespotted bamboo shark, allowed for a reliable heart rate measurement to be made in one subject (N = 4), yielding a median resting heart rate of 65 bpm, a comparable heart rate to previously determined heart rates of C. plagiosum (Miller et al., 2005). This method requires future work to solidify technique but proves useful in the attempt to attain accurate and reliable normal heart rates in sharks, of which there are numerous applications.

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