| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 獸醫學研究所 === 96 === Yellow-margined box turtle (Cuora flavomarginata) is list as endangered species in CITES appendix Π, however, understanding and research of reproduction of this species is extremely limited. In order to study its reproductive physiology, we combined radiology and ultrasound to observe the reproductive cycle of 24 female captive yellow-margined box turtles in Taiwan. Radiology was mainly to monitor clutch size, while ultrasound was to detect changing of follicles through the year.
The observation of total 24 female turtles began from April 2007 to June 2008 and their average carapaces length (CL) was 16.62 ± 1.66 cm and average body weight (BW) was 812 ± 164.98 g. In total one year observation, their mean clutch size was 3 (87 eggs/ 29 clutches) and the reproductive frequency was 95.83% (23/24). We found there were 20.8% turtles with double clutches and 79.2% with single clutch in this population. There was no statistical significance of the clutch size to the BW and to the CL.
In ultrasound, the ovulation occurred from March through August and the average follicular diameter was 2.16 ± 0.18 cm. The follicles came into latent period in October (1.54 ± 0.26 cm) and the vitellogenesis of the next reproductive cycle began in November.
In radiology, the egg shell was able to be detected at the 9th day after the ovulation. Compared to ultrasound observation, the egg formation was detected 8-9 days later by radiology. Also we discovered the average period of oviductal eggs was 6.9 weeks.
In conclusion, it is clearly that our study has shown a progress to realize the reproductive physiology of yellow-margined box turtle and has established a valuable and practical model for comparative study in reproductive physiology of other chelonians.
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