title: Relationship between body temperature and ovarian cycle in Asian and African elephants.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences, Gifu University, Gifu, Japan.
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kusuda
authors.forename: Terumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wakimoto
authors.forename: Tetsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Kazuhisa
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nishimura
authors.forename: Shigehisa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kawakami
authors.forename: Kazuo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okuda
authors.forename: Eriko
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.forename: Takuji
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shimada
authors.forename: Hidefusa
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sakamoto
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yanagimoto
authors.forename: Seitaro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wada
authors.forename: Kaneyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nishio
authors.forename: Hideyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fuji
authors.forename: Tetsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Hisashi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hashikawa
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kusunoki
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Doi
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D011372:Progestins