COMPARATIVE REPRODUCTIVE PHYSIOLOGY OF DOMESTICATED AND WILD MAMMALS

Abstract

The research focuses on the variabilities in the reproductive physiology of animals in captivity compared to life in the wild using an interdisciplinary experimental design, involving both quantitative hormonal tests of ovarian, follicular, and reproductive biomarkers, qualitative assessments of gamete quality, and behavioral ethology.  Sampling encompassed a number of representatives of each groups, and it encompassed the sampling across two breeding seasons to circumvent the season-induced bias.  Progesterone, oestradiol, luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone were measured by ELISA. We also analyzed the shape and motility of gametes with the help of a microscope.  The behavior was recorded using focal animal sampling and ethogram-based coding.  Mixed linear models revealed that the mean progesterone (p < 0.05) and oestradiol and inter-estrus interval was much smaller and sperm motility was high in domesticated animals as compared to wild species.  Conversely, those in the wild were more variable in terms of hormones and more complex in their mating behaviors implying that they have evolved in response to ecological dynamics to enable them to reproduce in an environment.  Environmental correlation analysis revealed that the quality of fodder, and alteration of the weather influenced the reproductive parameters of wild species to a greater extent. Conversely, reproductive measures of the domesticated species remained unchanged despite the identical conditions.  What these findings mean is that the domestication can increase the efficiency of the reproduction process because of the selective breeding, however, the domestication also reduces the adaptability to new environments in animals.  The mixture of methodology and cross-species analysis presented here benefits the efforts of breeding programs employed in the real world as well as safeguarding of wild mammal populations.