A technique for obtaining early life history data in pouched marsupials

Publication Type:
Journal Article
Year of Publication:
1991
Authors:
Miles Roberts, Frank Kohn
Publication/Journal:
Zoo Biology
Publisher:
A Wiley Company, Inc., Wiley Subscription Services
Keywords:
, ,
ISBN:
1098-2361
Abstract:

Abstract 10.1002/zoo.1430100111.abs Early developmental and demographic events in many marsupials occur in the mother’s pouch out of animal managers’ sight. Because pouch examination is perceived as being stressful both to animal and handler, the pouch has proven to be a formidable physical and psychological barrier to the study of early life history events in marsupials in zoos. Demographic and developmental data such as litter size at birth, secondary sex ratios, infant mortality rates, and early rates of growth and development, normally considered essential information for the development of breeding programs, are therefore essentially unavailable for most zoo populations of marsupials. Here we describe a technique for the safe and non-stressful examination of the pouches of small (< 2 kg) marsupials that enables the capture of such data. The technique, involving the use of transparent plastic tubes of slightly different diameters for restraining the animals and an otoscope for examining the pouch and its contents, has been very successfully applied to life history studies of four species at the National Zoological Park: Pseudocheirus peregrinus, Petaurus breviceps, Philander opossum, and Chironectes minimus.

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