ABSTRACT
The potential for avians that normally reside in significantly elevated montane environments to express erythrocytic modifications to facilitate their existence in a relatively oxygen-poor milieu is intuitively envisioned. While the reduction in the availability of oxygen is typically and logically cited as the probable cause for the erythrocytic responses associated with residency at high elevations, other factors such as the lower temperature ambient to mountainous elevations need to be evaluated as participants in the genesis of the erythroid modifications. The detailed analyses of Carey and Morton regarding an avian’s erythroid profile and the elevation of its habitat focused on the experience of passerine birds. An interesting and unpredicted result of residency at high elevation was that the increase in hemoglobin concentration of the blood and its erythrocytic index derivative, the MCHC, appeared to involve a disproportionate increase in the amount of the major molecular component of chicken hemoglobin.
