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Breeding Cycles in Three Species of African Ungulates

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Book cover Environmental Endocrinology

Part of the book series: Proceedings in Life Sciences ((LIFE SCIENCES))

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Abstract

It is nearly a decade since the Symposium of Comparative Biology of Reproduction in Mammals (PERRY and ROWLANDS, 1969) was held in Nairobi to stimulate research in this important field in Africa. Yet there has been no great increase in knowledge since then. Moreover, much of the endocrinologic research has been of an indirect nature, and hormone levels are only infrequently determined. This is first because research is carried out under difficult climatic conditions at great distances from modern facilities, and second because endemic diseases frequently preclude the collection and assaying of fresh material because of the veterinary restrictions imposed. It has therefore been decided to restrict this paper to three species of ungulates. Moreover, unlike domesticated ungulates where ambient temperature can have a marked detrimental influence on reproduction, no results have been reported for reproductive failure in indigenous wild African ungulates. The substance of this paper is devoted to rhythms dependent on day length, and the influence of nutrition in the reproductive cycle, as there has been little research on other aspects of mammalian endocrinology.

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© 1978 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Skinner, J.D. (1978). Breeding Cycles in Three Species of African Ungulates. In: Assenmacher, I., Farner, D.S. (eds) Environmental Endocrinology. Proceedings in Life Sciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-66981-1_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-66981-1_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-66983-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-66981-1

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