Biobanking and Use of Epididymal Sperm – An Alternative for Wildlife Germplasm Conservation

Abstract

Wildlife has been strongly threatened both by climate changes, which directly impact their habitats, and by human action, which promotes deforestation or unrestrained poaching. While in situ conservation strategies such as habitat preservation are often the best way to preserve biodiversity, other rescue strategies such as germplasm conservation are also necessary to facilitate the continuation of natural processes of evolution. Thus, the recovery of spermatozoa from the tail of the epididymis of endangered or valuable individuals appears as an option for the preservation of genetic material, mainly in those individuals that die suddenly, or as an alternative for those species in which techniques for ejaculate collection have not yet been established. In this chapter, the basic concepts of epididymal physiology in some wild mammals will be demonstrated. Next, the recovery techniques and analyzes that allow the characterization of this gamete will be presented, as well as the different methods proposed for the refrigeration, freezing, and applications of epididymal spermatozoa in different species. Then, important concepts will be discussed regarding how this technology can be added to the efforts for the formation of biobanks for the conservation of wild mammals with biologically valuable genotypes.