BEHAVIOUR FEATURES OF THE PERSIAN LEOPARD (PANTHERA PARDUS SAXICOLOR) DURING DIFFERENT STAGES OF THE ESTROUS CYCLE
Journal Title: Nature Conservation Research. Заповедная наука - Year 2016, Vol 1, Issue 3
Abstract
The implementation of the programme for the reintroduction of the Persian leopard in the Caucasus in Russia allowed carrying out a detailed video monitoring of various aspects of this subspecies' life under captive conditions in the «Center of the leopard recovery in the Caucasus». The most important stage of this programme was the formation of couples and the progeny getting of adult individuals caught in their natural environment and placed into a closed aviary. A complex sexual behaviour of leopards, while having different stages of the estrous cycle, could be identified by manifestation of characteristic features in various stages. There is an increase in both the motion behaviour as well as in the marking activity during proestrus; the cozying that helps to maintain the sexual activity of the male and the adopting of the receptive pose of the female during the estrus; avoidance of mating by the female during the proestrus stage; transition of the mating initiative to the male as well as passive behaviour of the female during the metaestrus stage. A large number of matings is caused by the species' biology. The leopard belongs to the animals with an «instigated» ovulation. Therefore the multiple coituses stimulate the maintaining of a high concentration of estrogens in the blood and promote the ovulation of follicles. As a result, we have concluded that the form of female sexual behaviour (with permissible error) can indicate the functional activity of the ovaries and the corpora lutea, as well as it allows determining the beginning and duration of the stages of the estrous cycle.
Authors and Affiliations
Makhar M. Ertuev, Umar A. Semenov
SMILE, YOU ARE ON CAMERA OR IN A LIVE TRAP! THE ROLE OF MAMMALS IN DISPERSION OF JACKFRUIT AND NATIVE SEEDS IN ILHA GRANDE STATE PARK, BRAZIL
The alien species Artocarpus heterophyllus, originally from India, was introduced to Brazil in the colonial period and has become invasive in some areas in the Atlantic Forest. Its fruits can weigh 35 kg and produce up t...
A NEWLY DESCRIBED GROUP OF THERMAL SPRINGS AND SOLFATAR FIELDS ON THE WESTERN SLOPE OF DOKUCHAEV’S RIDGE, KUNASHIR ISLAND
As a result of field research in a remote and poorly studied area in the north-west of Kunashir Island, an unknown group of hydrothermal-solfataric post-volcanic activity was discovered on the western slope of the volcan...
AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES OF SOUTH OSSETIA
For the first time we have summarised the results of the study of batraho- and herpetofauna of the Republic of South Ossetia. We present an Annotated List of species as authentically living in the region, as well as ever...
CAMERA TRAPS TO STUDY THE FOREST ELEPHANT'S (LOXODONTA CYCLOTIS) RESPONSE TO CHILLI PEPPER REPELLENT DEVICES IN GAMBA, GABON
In Central Africa, Gabon is a forested country with a rich biodiversity where conflict between wild animals and humans is common and causes innumerable damage to crops. The worst crop raiders are elephants, which can des...
BOOK REVIEW: PROBLEMATIC WILDLIFE: A CROSS-DISCIPLINARY APPROACH
PROBLEMATIC WILDLIFE: A CROSSDISCIPLINARY APPROACH, EDITED BY: FRANCESCO M. ANGELICI. CHAM: SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL, 2016, XVI + 603 PAGES, ISBN 978-3-319-22245-5, PRICE: $159.00; ISBN 978-3-319-22246-2 (eBOOK), PRICE: $1...