Corner Leigh A L, Stuart Lynsey J, Kelly David J, Marples Nicola M
School of Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
Department of Zoology, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
PLoS One. 2015 Oct 14;10(10):e0138093. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0138093. eCollection 2015.
The reproductive biology of the European badger (Meles meles) is of wide interest because it is one of the few mammal species that show delayed implantation and one of only five which are suggested to show superfetation as a reproductive strategy. This study aimed to describe the reproductive biology of female Irish badgers with a view to increasing our understanding of the process of delayed implantation and superfetation. We carried out a detailed histological examination of the reproductive tract of 264 female badgers taken from sites across 20 of the 26 counties in the Republic of Ireland. The key results show evidence of multiple blastocysts at different stages of development present simultaneously in the same female, supporting the view that superfetation is relatively common in this population of badgers. In addition we present strong evidence that the breeding rate in Irish badgers is limited by failure to conceive, rather than failure at any other stages of the breeding cycle. We show few effects of age on breeding success, suggesting no breeding suppression by adult females in this population. The study sheds new light on this unusual breeding strategy of delayed implantation and superfetation, and highlights a number of significant differences between the reproductive biology of female Irish badgers and those of Great Britain and Swedish populations.
欧洲獾（Meles meles）的生殖生物学备受关注，因为它是少数表现出延迟着床的哺乳动物物种之一，也是仅有的五种被认为将超数排卵作为繁殖策略的物种之一。本研究旨在描述爱尔兰雌性獾的生殖生物学，以增进我们对延迟着床和超数排卵过程的理解。我们对从爱尔兰共和国26个郡中的20个郡的不同地点采集的264只雌性獾的生殖道进行了详细的组织学检查。关键结果表明，在同一雌性獾体内同时存在处于不同发育阶段的多个囊胚，这支持了超数排卵在这群獾中相对普遍的观点。此外，我们提供了有力证据表明，爱尔兰獾的繁殖率受受孕失败限制，而非繁殖周期中其他任何阶段的失败。我们发现年龄对繁殖成功率影响不大，这表明该种群中的成年雌性不存在繁殖抑制现象。这项研究为这种不寻常的延迟着床和超数排卵繁殖策略提供了新的见解，并突出了爱尔兰雌性獾与英国和瑞典种群在生殖生物学上的一些显著差异。
