Relationship between Sexual Behaviors and Fecal Estrogen Levels in a Female Snow Leopard (&lt;i&gt;Uncia uncia&lt;/i&gt;) and a Female Cheetah (&lt;i&gt;Acinonyx jubatus&lt;/i&gt;) under Captivity

Kinoshita, Kodzue; Inada, Sayaka; Aramaki, Yusuke; Seki, K; Ashida, Masanao; Hama, Natsuki; Ohazama, Megumi; Kusunoki, Hiroshi

doi:10.5686/jjzwm.14.59

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…, Kinoshita et al. , Brown ). The intensity of behavioural oestrus, however, differs considerably within and between felid species, and oestrus signs range from overt and easily detectable to hidden and undetectable (Blomqvist & Sten , Mellen , Foreman , Wielebnowski & Brown , Morato et al.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Reproductive biology of the 38 extant felid species: a review

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Knowledge of reproductive biology is crucial to improving in situ and ex situ breeding programmes for felids. We reviewed the available literature (223 publications) on the reproductive biology of all 38 felid species. We found that 78% of the publications (173) were focused on either or both the oestrous cycles (84) or ejaculate traits (92) of felids. Literature was biased towards the domestic cat Felis catus (31), the cheetah Acinonyx jubatus (27), and the panthera lineage (66). There was a paucity of literature on the caracal lineage (7), the bay cat lineage (3), members of the domestic cat lineage other than the domestic cat (11), and several species of the ocelot lineage. The mean duration of oestrus varies little between the different lineages and species (mean 5.2 days, range 1–10 days, nE = 2265). However, the duration of interoestrus varies greatly in most species (e.g. 1–118 days in the domestic cat). Gestation length also varies significantly between species, but is similar within each lineage and related to adult body size. Non‐pregnant luteal phases appear to persist for half the duration of pregnant luteal phases (48%, 21–71 days, nE = 256; c.f. previous reports of one‐third the duration of pregnant luteal phases). Sperm motility (sperm motility index), sperm viability, and acrosome intactness are high in the fresh ejaculates of most felid species [69% (26–90%, nE = 2104), 69% (49–87%, nE = 443), and 84% (21–100%, nE = 1763), respectively]. Teratospermia is highly prevalent within Felidae, but is particularly problematic for the puma and lynx lineages [ejaculates with 76% (63–94%) and 79% (63–98%) abnormal sperm, respectively]. Teratospermia appears to be linked to low genetic diversity. The maintenance and enhancement of genetic diversity through the use of assisted reproductive technologies should be a long‐term goal for felid conservation management. A short‐term management goal should be to improve the success of assisted reproductive technologies in felids by minimising captivity‐related stress, which can adversely affect fertility and ovarian activity.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, Kinoshita et al. ). Most studies have been conducted on captive animals, but the captive environment has been shown to affect reproductive seasonality (Swanson et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reproductive biology of the 38 extant felid species: a review

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As for the WS style, female C was housed with the male during the winter season when estrous behaviors was observed frequently (flehmen, sniffing, rubbing, rolling, prusten, spraying, etc. ) [29] . In details, this involved female C being housed with the male from the start of this study to June 21, 2007 (1 st AY), from January 16, 2008 to June 30, 2009 (from the breeding season of 1 st WS to the end of 2 nd AY), and from December 30, 2009 to the finish of this study (the breeding season of 2 nd WS).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The extracts of E 2 , P 4 and cortisol metabolite in the supernatant were analyzed by enzyme-immunoassay (EIA) according to methods described elsewhere [29] . Briefly, the fecal extracts was diluted 8-fold with EIA buffer (0.15-M NaCl, 0.04-M Na 2 HPO 4 , 0.1% bovine serum albumin, pH 7.2) and duplicate 20 µl aliquots of this solution added to 96-well plates bound with goat anti-rabbit IgG (H+L) (Code#270335, Seikagaku Biobusiness Co., Tokyo, Japan).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-Term Monitoring of Fecal Steroid Hormones in Female Snow Leopards (Panthera uncia) during Pregnancy or Pseudopregnancy

Kinoshita

Inada

Seki³

et al. 2011

PLoS ONE

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Knowledge of the basic reproductive physiology of snow leopards is required urgently in order to develop a suitable management conditions under captivity. In this study, the long-term monitoring of concentrations of three steroid hormones in fecal matter of three female snow leopards was performed using enzyme immunoassays: (1) estradiol-17β, (2) progesterone and (3) cortisol metabolite. Two of the female animals were housed with a male during the winter breeding season, and copulated around the day the estradiol-17β metabolite peaked subsequently becoming pregnant. The other female was treated in two different ways: (1) first housed with a male in all year round and then (2) in the winter season only. She did not mate with him on the first occasion, but did so latter around when estradiol-17β metabolite peaked, and became pseudopregnant. During pregnancy, progesterone metabolite concentrations increased for 92 or 94 days, with this period being approximately twice as long as in the pseudopregnant case (31, 42, 49 and 53 days). The levels of cortisol metabolite in the pseudopregnant female (1.35 µg/g) were significantly higher than in the pregnant females (0.33 and 0.24 µg/g) (P<0.05). Similarly, during the breeding season, the levels of estradiol-17β metabolite in the pseudopregnant female (2.18 µg/g) were significantly higher than those in the pregnant females (0.81 and 0.85 µg/g) (P<0.05). Unlike cortisol the average levels of estradiol-17β during the breeding season were independent of reproductive success.The hormone levels may also be related to housing conditions and the resulting reproductive success in female leopards. The female housed with a male during the non-breeding season had high levels of cortisol metabolites and low levels of estradiol-17β in the breeding season, and failed to become pregnant. This indicates that housing conditions in snow leopards may be an important factor for normal endocrine secretion and resulting breeding success.

show abstract

“…Hormone research has been popular since the 1970s, attempting to understand the physiological state of not only livestock and experimental animals but also zoo animals (Chappel & Schmidt, 1979;Nakakura et al, 1978). Since then-to improve the captive breeding of endangered species in zoos-many studies that evaluate the effects of different housing conditions on the reproductive and stress states by monitoring the reproductive and stress hormone concentrations have been published (Kinoshita et al, 2009(Kinoshita et al, , 2011Marinath et al, 2019;Terio et al, 2003). Owing to the advancements in hormonal research targeting zoo animals, there has been a shift in sample collection methods, that is, from using invasively collected samples, such as blood, to using samples that can be collected noninvasively, such as excrement (Young et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A field‐friendly method of measuring faecal glucocorticoid metabolite concentration as a simple stress checker in snow leopards

Kinoshita

2021

Methods Ecol Evol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

1. The hormonal analysis of excrement has been employed to non-invasively assess the physiological conditions of domestic, experimental, zoo and wild animals to.However, conventional hormone analysis techniques require frozen and refrigerated reagents, and laboratory equipment; therefore, it is almost impossible to obtain the results on-site. This study attempted to establish a method for the simple and rapid quantitative on-site analysis of faecal glucocorticoid metabolite (fGM) concentrations; this method involved using hand-shaking for faecal hormone extraction, and immunochromatography using test strips and a smartphone application. This study focused specifically on snow leopards and developed a new, simple fGM measurement method to evaluate their stress levels on-site.2. First, the effects of ultraviolet exposure and bacterial activity on fGM concentration, including sample age, were evaluated using faeces from a captive snow leopard. Second, a field-friendly hormone extraction method was evaluated; this method does not require storage of faeces in the field because the hormones are extracted by hand-shaking of faeces in ethanol at the time of collection. In addition, to measure hormone concentrations on-site, a simple immunochromatography measurement kit was used. The concentrations were measured by quantifying the colour reactions using a smartphone application.3. There was no consistent increase or decrease in fGM concentration with ultraviolet irradiation time. In addition, a high correlation was observed between concentrations extracted using the conventional method (using a vortex mixer and methanol extraction) and those from the field-friendly method (r = 0.812, p < 0.05). Changes in fGM concentration measured using immunochromatography were also highly consistent with those measured using the conventional method (enzyme immunoassay; r = 0.825, p < 0.05). The analytical validation of immunochromatography also showed high accuracy, that is parallelism (ANCOVA: F = 0.597, df = 1, p = 0.445) and recovery tests (98.2% ± 5.1% and 107.5% ± 18.7%). Further, for biological validation, the change in fGM concentration was examined before and after the transportation of the snow leopards to another zoo. | 1735Methods in Ecology and Evoluঞon KINOSHITA How to cite this article: Kinoshita, K. (2021). A field-friendly method of measuring faecal glucocorticoid metabolite concentration as a simple stress checker in snow leopards.

show abstract

Relationship between Sexual Behaviors and Fecal Estrogen Levels in a Female Snow Leopard (<i>Uncia uncia</i>) and a Female Cheetah (<i>Acinonyx jubatus</i>) under Captivity

Cited by 10 publications

References 26 publications

Reproductive biology of the 38 extant felid species: a review

Reproductive biology of the 38 extant felid species: a review

Long-Term Monitoring of Fecal Steroid Hormones in Female Snow Leopards (Panthera uncia) during Pregnancy or Pseudopregnancy

A field‐friendly method of measuring faecal glucocorticoid metabolite concentration as a simple stress checker in snow leopards

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About