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  Vertebrate Reproductive Science & Technology
 
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Article     |     Next >>   Contents Vol 17(4)

Effects of supplementary food on the winter inhibition of reproduction in male and female four-striped field mice (Rhabdomys pumilio)

C. Jackson A B, R. T. F. Bernard A C

A Department of Zoology and Entomology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown 6139, South Africa.
B Present address: Department of Zoology, Sub-Department of Animal Behaviour, University of Cambridge, Madingley, Cambridge CB3 8AA, United Kingdom.
C Corresponding author. Email: r.bernard@ru.ac.za
 
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Abstract

The effects of winter food supplementation on reproduction in the seasonally breeding four-striped field mouse Rhabdomys pumilio were investigated at Mountain Zebra National Park in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. On both control and supplemented grids, reproductive activity in females was inhibited; no pregnant females were collected and juveniles were only present in the first winter month. The provision of additional food resulted in an increase in body mass and mass of the male and female reproductive organs. However, all males, from both grids, were spermatogenically active. Ovarian activity was not stimulated by the provision of additional food, but the development of the uterus was and the endometrium was thicker and more vascularised in mice from the supplemented grid than from the control grid. We conclude that seasonal reproduction in R. pumilio is controlled by the females, in which reproductive activity is inhibited in winter. However, the provision of supplementary food was not sufficient to override the reproductive inhibition.

Keywords: climatic variability, opportunistic reproduction, rodent, South Africa.


   
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