Theses and Dissertations from UMD

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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Author: search.filters.author.Brown, Megan ElizabethSubject: search.filters.subject.Animal Behavior

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    MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING THE POOR REPRODUCTION IN THE WHOOPING CRANE (GRUS AMERICANA)
    (2013) Brown, Megan Elizabeth; Songsasen, Nucharin; Keefer, Carol L; Animal Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Reproductive success of the endangered whooping crane (Grus americana) maintained ex situ is suboptimal. The main goals of this multidisciplinary investigation are to advance the understanding of whooping crane reproduction and identify potential causes of poor reproductive success in a captive colony. The specific objectives include (Study 1) determining overall seminal characteristics and examine the influences of inbreeding, age, and stages of breeding season on seminal quality in captive birds and (Study 2) utilizing non-invasive endocrine monitoring to longitudinally assess gonadal and adrenal steroids of bird pairs with various reproductive outcomes and evaluating the relationship between hormones and crane behaviors. Our findings demonstrate that (1) there is no relationship between inbreeding coefficient or age and seminal quality of the whooping crane and (2) stage of breeding season impacted seminal output and characteristics. Overall estradiol concentrations and reproductive behaviors, but not glucocorticoid levels, were also key determinants to successful reproductive output.