Textbook of Animal Physiology

Animals and bacteria have cell surface antigens referred to as a blood type. Antigens from the human ABO blood group system are also found in apes such as chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas. Other animal blood sometimes agglutinates (to varying levels of intensity) with human blood group reagents, but the structure of the blood group antigens in animals is not always identical to those typically found in humans. The classification of most animal blood groups therefore uses different blood typing systems to those used for classification of human blood. In many animals body odour plays an important survival function. Strong body odour can be a warning signal for predators to stay away, or it can be also a signal that the prey animal is unpalatable. For example, some animals species, who feign death to survive (like possums), in this state produce a strong body odour to deceive a predator that the prey animal has been dead for a long time and is already in the advanced stage of decomposing. The advances that have taken place in the field of physiology during the last four to five decades are spectacular. It is therefore necessary that the students either at undergraduate or postgraduate level are fully exposed to these frontiers in Animal Physiology and the present publication is an attempt in this direction.