Relationship between Conception Date and Latitude in Muskoxen

Abstract: It has been suggested that muskoxen calve earlier with increasing latitude but the available data do not seem to have been thoroughly analyzed. Therefore, estimated conception dates (K=657) from a wide range of latitudes were compared. The results indicate that conceptions occur about a mo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Peter F. Flood, Susan C. Tedesco
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Subjects:
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.600.9888
http://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/rangifer/article/download/382/371/
Description
Summary:Abstract: It has been suggested that muskoxen calve earlier with increasing latitude but the available data do not seem to have been thoroughly analyzed. Therefore, estimated conception dates (K=657) from a wide range of latitudes were compared. The results indicate that conceptions occur about a month earlier in the arctic than at temperate latitudes. This conclusion is consistent with reported observations of mating behaviour and calving season. Key words: Ovibos, season, calving, reproduction.