The pulmonary circulation of the Tibetan snow pig (<i>Marmota himalayana</i>)

Abstract

Studies are presented on the pulmonary circulation of three Himalayan marmots ( Marmota himalayana (Hodgson)) captured in the mountains north of Lhasa, Tibet. The pulmonary arterial pressure and resistance were low, the right ventricle was not hypertrophied and the arterioles and terminal portions of the muscular pulmonary arteries had thin walls. The observations suggest that this species has adapted through natural selection to high altitude by losing the capacity for hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction.