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8 - Endocrinology of the giant panda and application of hormone technology to species management
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- By Karen J. Steinman, National Zoological Park, Steven L. Monfort, National Zoological Park, Laura McGeehan, Conservation and Research for Endangered Species, David C. Kersey, National Zoological Park, Fernando Gual-sil, Zoológico de Chapultepec, Rebecca J. Snyder, Zoo Atlanta, Pengyan Wang, China Research and Conservation Center for the Giant Panda, Tatsuko Nakao, Adventure World, Nancy M. Czekala, Conservation and Research for Endangered Species
- Edited by David E. Wildt, Smithsonian National Zoological Park, Washington DC, Anju Zhang, Hemin Zhang, Wildlife Conservation and Research Center for Giant Pandas, Donald L. Janssen, Zoological Society of San Diego, Susie Ellis
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- Book:
- Giant Pandas
- Published online:
- 09 August 2009
- Print publication:
- 27 July 2006, pp 198-230
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
Increasing breeding success in the giant panda requires a better understanding of its complex reproductive biology. We know that the female is typically mono-oestrus during a breeding season which occurs from February to May (within and outside China). Behavioural and physiological changes associated with pro-oestrus and oestrus last one to two weeks, during which the female exhibits proceptive behaviours, such as scent marking, to advertise her sexual receptivity (Lindburg et al., 2001). During the peri-ovulatory interval, receptive behaviours (e.g. tail-up lordotic posture) climax with copulation generally occurring over a one- to three-day interval. Birthing occurs from June to October with a gestation of 85 to 185 days (Zhu et al., 2001). This unusually wide gestation span is due to the phenomenon of delayed implantation, a varied interval before the conceptus implants in the uterus and begins foetal development. The driving force behind implantation in this species is unknown. The giant panda also experiences pseudopregnancy, whereby the female exhibits behavioural, physiological and hormonal changes similar to pregnancy.
Behavioural and physiological cues associated with both pregnancy and pseudopregnancy include decreased appetite, nest-building and cradling behaviours, vulvar swelling and colouration, mammary gland enlargement and lethargy. Additionally, temporal and quantitative progesterone patterns (tracked by assessing urinary hormone by-products and progestins) are indistinguishable between pregnancy and pseudopregnancy. Therefore, no definitive test currently exists for identifying pregnant from pseudopregnant giant pandas.
10 - Non-invasive endocrine measures of reproduction and stress in wild populations
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- By Steven L. Monfort, Conservation & Research Center, National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution, Front Royal, VA 22630 and Washington, DC 20008, U.S.A.
- Edited by William V. Holt, Zoological Society of London, Amanda R. Pickard, Zoological Society of London, John C. Rodger, David E. Wildt, Smithsonian National Zoological Park, Washington DC
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- Book:
- Reproductive Science and Integrated Conservation
- Published online:
- 21 January 2010
- Print publication:
- 05 December 2002, pp 147-165
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Summary
INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE
The evaluation of steroid metabolite content and/or profiles in either urine or faeces represents a snapshot of hormone activity and permits the long-term study of reproductive patterns in individuals, populations or species, all without perturbing the animal. By the mid-1980s, non-invasive immunoassay analysis of urine, which was pioneered in captive non-human primates (Hodges et al., 1979), had been adopted for the ex situ reproductive study of diverse primate, ungulate and avian species. Steroid monitoring in faeces was first described in the human (Adlercreutz & Martin, 1976) and then applied to the domestic mare (Bamberg et al., 1984) and cow (Möstl et al., 1984), before being used in the first non-domesticated species, the macaque (Risler et al., 1987). The non-invasive measurement of adrenal hormone metabolites was first accomplished in the bighorn sheep (Miller et al., 1991). These technological breakthroughs have revolutionised wildlife endocrinology.
Similar strategies using either urine or faeces also have application to free-living wildlife. The first study was reported in 1984 and investigated musth in male African elephants (Poole et al., 1984). Shortly thereafter, followed a study of female vervet monkeys (Andelman et al., 1985). Since then, more than 50 publications (Table 10.1) have described non-invasive endocrine monitoring of free-living mammals and birds. These studies have assessed longitudinal reproductive patterns (including seasonality, ovarian cyclicity and pregnancy), but more often have evaluated fecundity or hormonal relationships in ‘social’ species.
Range collapse of a tropical cervid (Cervus eldi) and the extent of remaining habitat in central Myanmar
- William J. McShea, Peter Leimgruber, Myint Aung, Steven L. Monfort, Christen Wemmer
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- Journal:
- Animal Conservation forum / Volume 2 / Issue 3 / August 1999
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 August 1999, pp. 173-183
- Print publication:
- August 1999
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The thamin (Cervus eldi) is an endangered species of deer whose present range is greatly reduced from its original distribution covering the deciduous forests throughout south-east Asia. We mapped the present distribution of thamin using ground surveys and tied this information to habitat types derived from satellite images in order to detect patterns that might indicate the landscape features which precipitated the decline. We conducted a survey of 24 out of 28 Myanmar townships that were reported to contain thamin in 1992, and evidence of thamin were found in 23 of these townships, predominately in mixed deciduous forests where dipterocarp trees were present. There was no significant correlation between the number of thamin detected and forest remaining in the township, or the size of the human or livestock population. A landcover classification of Landsat Thematic Mapper images indicated 58% of the study area contained deciduous forest, of which 12% was dipterocarp forest. Forest tracts containing thamin were digitized and landscape analyses were conducted on a resampled habitat map that emphasized dry and dipterocarp deciduous forest. Of six landscape variables measured only core area size was a significant predictor for the presence of thamin. None of the unsurveyed indaing forest tracts possessed a core area large enough to support thamin. The pattern of thamin decline matches predictions that peripheral, rather than central, populations are more likely to persist in declining species.