EN
The exchange of heat energy between the body and the environment in homothermal animals depends among others on the temperature gradient. The increase in the body and skin temperature caused by the decrease in the ambient temperature is to reduce the thermal gradient which protects animals against stress of heat and cold. In the present study the authors examined the rate of changes of thermal gradient between the skin and the environment and changes in skin temperature, the rate of heat flow and insulating power of hair cover in rabbits according to the changes of environmental temperature. The measurements were made at various sites of the skin: thermostabile and thermolabile, not shorn and shorn. Considerable dopendence of skin temperature on the environmental temperature, especially at the thermostabile sites, shorn has been observed although the drop in skin temperature did not catch up with the drop in air temperature. The values of those gradient influenced the value of heat flow from the body to the environment.