Laying time in the wild...

Posted by Dr. Phil on April 06, 2002 at 13:27:18:

In Reply to: Re: burrows / overwintering posted by Dwight Sayers on April 06, 2002 at 09:57:08:

Well that's fascinating field data indeed, even if it wasn't exactly collected by a man of science! So he never kept any of the females eh? Riiiight!

But what strikes me concerning the information he relayed to you was that he'd found what seemed to be gravid females as late as May. Concidering what every breeder must already have noticed, females that appear very heavy with eggs can take quite a few additional weeks before actually laying them, so that could mean that in the wild they might lay as late as end of May or even early June, depending on their geographic location within their range. In turn, this could mean that either they tend to actually mate somewhat later that we might think, like not before late Jan or Feb, or that they seek out such relatively cold conditions within their habitat during the winter months that the post-mating ovogenesis process would then take an incredible ammount of time to complete because of the slowed metabolism, as would strongly suggest Doug's work with the species.

Dean, do you have any idea when those guys at KSC will be putting out their report??? Do you know exactly what date is was when that tracked pair shacked up for 3 days?

Dr. Phil

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: Well that's fascinating field data indeed, even if it wasn't exactly collected by a man of science! So he never kept any of the females eh? Riiiight! : But what strikes me concerning the information he relayed to you was that he'd found what seemed to be gravid females as late as May. Concidering what every breeder must already have noticed, females that appear very heavy with eggs can take quite a few additional weeks before actually laying them, so that could mean that in the wild they might lay as late as end of May or even early June, depending on their geographic location within their range. In turn, this could mean that either they tend to actually mate somewhat later that we might think, like not before late Jan or Feb, or that they seek out such relatively cold conditions within their habitat during the winter months that the post-mating ovogenesis process would then take an incredible ammount of time to complete because of the slowed metabolism, as would strongly suggest Doug's work with the species. : Dean, do you have any idea when those guys at KSC will be putting out their report??? Do you know exactly what date is was when that tracked pair shacked up for 3 days? : : Dr. Phil

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