Abstract:
:About 10 per cent of birds' eggs fail to hatch, but the incidence of failure can be much higher in endangered species. Most studies fail to distinguish between infertility (due to a lack of sperm) and embryo mortality as the cause of hatching failure, yet doing so is crucial in order to understand the underlying problem. Using newly validated techniques to visualize sperm and embryonic tissue, we assessed the fertility status of unhatched eggs of five endangered species, including both wild and captive birds. All eggs were classified as 'infertile' when collected, but most were actually fertile with numerous sperm on the ovum. Eggs of captive birds had fewer sperm and were more likely to be infertile than those of wild birds. Our findings raise important questions regarding the management of captive breeding programmes.
journal_name
Biol Lettjournal_title
Biology lettersauthors
Hemmings N,West M,Birkhead TRdoi
10.1098/rsbl.2012.0655subject
Has Abstractpub_date
2012-12-23 00:00:00pages
964-7issue
6eissn
1744-9561issn
1744-957Xpii
rsbl.2012.0655journal_volume
8pub_type
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