Relationship between body temperature and ovarian cycle in Asian and African elephants.
The aim of the present study was to investigate whether changes in body temperature are related to the ovarian cycle in elephants. Rectal, tongue or fecal temperature was measured for 2 Asian and 5 African elephants using an electric thermometer. Evaluation of ovarian cycles was based on the changes in serum or fecal progestin. The mean +/- SD values of the rectal, tongue, and fecal temperatures were 36.3 +/- 0.3 (2 Asian), 36.2 +/- 0.5 (1 African) and 36.5 +/- 0.3 C (4 African), respectively; the fecal temperature was the highest of the 3 temperatures (P<0.01). The longitudinal changes in body temperatures correlated with the ovarian cycle, with higher temperatures occurring during the luteal phase. The fecal temperatures of one acyclic African elephant did not change cyclically. These results suggest that measurement of body temperature can be used to easily evaluate the ovarian cyclicity of an individual animal, although it might not be able to determine the ovarian cycle length.
Kusuda
Satoshi
S
Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences, Gifu University, Gifu, Japan.
Wakimoto
Terumi
T
Sato
Tetsuya
T
Nishimura
Kazuhisa
K
Kawakami
Shigehisa
S
Okuda
Kazuo
K
Saito
Eriko
E
Shimada
Takuji
T
Sakamoto
Hidefusa
H
Yanagimoto
Hiroshi
H
Wada
Seitaro
S
Nishio
Kaneyoshi
K
Fuji
Hideyuki
H
Suzuki
Tetsuya
T
Hashikawa
Hisashi
H
Kusunoki
Hiroshi
H
Doi
Osamu
O
D000818:Animals; D001831:Body Temperature; D004606:Elephants / Q000502:physiology*; D005243:Feces / Q000737:chemistry; D005260:Female; D008597:Menstrual Cycle / Q000502:physiology*; D011372:Progestins / Q000032:analysis / Q000097:blood; D012007:Rectum / Q000502:physiology; D013817:Thermography; D014059:Tongue / Q000502:physiology
D011372:Progestins