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Insights into ovarian function in wild muriqui monkeys ( Brachyteles arachnoides )
Author(s) -
Strier Karen B.,
Ziegler Toni E.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
american journal of primatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.988
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1098-2345
pISSN - 0275-2565
DOI - 10.1002/ajp.1350320104
Subject(s) - biology , estrone , reproductive cycle , cycling , period (music) , feces , estrous cycle , zoology , reproduction , demography , ecology , endocrinology , estrogen , geography , forestry , physics , sociology , acoustics
Fecal samples were collected systematically during a 6‐week period, from 13 September‐24 October, 1990, from four nonlactating female muriquis ( Brachyteles arachnoides ) inhabiting an 800 ha forest at Fazenda Montes Claros in Minas Gerais, Brazil. All four females were experienced mothers; one had most recently given birth in June 1988; the other three had most recently given birth in August 1988. Fecal assays measuring progesterone, estradiol, and estrone indicated consistently low levels in the one female who had given birth in June 1988 and in two of the three females who had given birth in August 1988. Elevated steroid levels did, however, appear in fecal samples from the fourth female on day 15 of the collection period. Steroid levels subsequently dropped and then began to rise again during what appeared to be a second cycle. The cycling female was the only one of the four females examined observed to copulate during the collection period. These preliminary data indicate that nonlactating female muriquis do not cycle year‐round, resumption of cycling is not tightly synchronized among females even when their prior parturitions were tightly synchronized, and resumed sexual activity appears to be associated with resumed cycling. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.