Relationship between Conception Date and Latitude in Muskoxen

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 earlie...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Rangifer
Main Authors: Flood, Peter F., Tedesco, Susan C.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Septentrio Academic Publishing 1997
Subjects:
Online Access:https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/rangifer/article/view/382
https://doi.org/10.7557/2.17.1.382
Description
Summary: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.