Why do we need a book devoted to the thermoregulatory characteristics of laboratory rodents? Such a book will be of obvious benefit to those involved in the study of thermal biology, but this book is also written to meet the needs of more readers than the relative handful of thermal biologists. One or more species of laboratory rodents are used predominantly by researchers in a variety of fields in the life sciences, including neural science, endocrinology, immunology, nutrition, and many others. The biological endpoints commonly measured in these fields would seem not to be related to thermoregulation. Yet manipulation of any one of these systems with surgical, pharmacological, and/or environmental procedures often leads to changes in the rodent's thermoregulation. Because temperature regulation is controlled essentially by a “holistic” regulatory system, meaning that its responses affect the activities of all other physiological and behavioral processes, it is clear that researchers working with rodents must be cognizant of thermoregulatory physiology.

Since completing my graduate work, I have found a need for a comprehensive source on the thermal physiology of laboratory rodents. Most other books on temperature regulation have focused on specific aspects of thermoregulation, such as fever, pharmacological control, exercise, and nonshivering thermogenesis. Other books have concentrated on specific mammalian species, particularly humans and the domesticated species that are of importance to agriculture. However, there are few sources that have examined the responses of a specific group of mammals such as the rodents.