Cover image

Cover: A male Svalbard ptarmigan (Lagopus muta hyperborea) on the slopes of the Arctowski Mountain on Spitsbergen, Svalbard, in early spring. This bird is endemic to the Svalbard archipelago in the high Arctic where it remains year-round, making it the world's most northerly-distributed land bird. Nord and Folkow show that handling of this well-insulated bird caused stress-induced hyperthermia even in severe cold, as predicted from studies of other large endotherms. Thus, pronounced body cooling during handling in low temperature, as previously reported in small and poorly-insulated birds, probably reflects failure to withstand increased heat-loss rate. Image (C) Andreas Nord, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.