Aspects of Reproduction in the Male Eastern Quoll, Dasyurus viverrinus (Shaw) (Marsupialia: Dasyuridae), with Notes on Polyoestry

Abstract

In captivity, mating activity of quolls reached a peak in late May-early June. Weights of the male accessory glands peaked about the time of mating, after which the glands regressed; in September they weighed considerably less. Weights of testes and epididymides did not vary so much, but by September spermatorrhoea had ceased and the seminiferous tubules had become aspermic. The disseminate prostate gland was divisible histologically into three segments: the anterior and posterior 2 segments had a single cell type in the tubule epithelium; but prostate 1 had two types. The three pairs of Cowper's glands had similar, simple, columnar epithelium. The seminiferous tubules, supported by numerous interstitial cells, were of diameter 360-506 µm. The mature spermatozoon was large, 232 µm long; its flagellum, oval in cross-section, was inserted midway along the wedge-shaped head at the anterior margin of a ventral groove. The gestation period varied from 20 to 24 days; if the first litter was lost early in lactation, the females might return to oestrus. The species is, therefore, polyoestrous. The oestrous cycle of one animal was 34 days.