Abstract
Nearly two decades ago, modern wildlife medicine started to gradually use the advantages of the non-invasive ultrasonography, which was already well established in human and classical veterinary medicine. For more than one decade now, the application of imaging ultrasound for reproductive assessments and as a supportive tool during assisted reproduction procedures such as artificial insemination (AI) in elephants and rhinoceroses has dramatically improved the breeding success in captive breeding programmes. The opportunity for identifying potential breeding candidates on the basis of their reproductive health status is widely used for natural mating or for AI, today. The longitudinal sonographic monitoring of pathological processes on the internal female genital tract allowed the identification of pathogenetic causes for the rapid infertility development in older nulliparous females. The factors causing temporary infertility in captive male elephants and rhinoceroses were also identified by the use of ultrasound. Today, ultrasonography is the golden standard for reproductive assessments in megavertebrates such as elephants and rhinoceroses in captive management settings and also in the wild.
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Acknowledgements
The authors dedicate this article to Professor Christian Pitra for his upcoming 65th birthday in 2006. The new field of reproduction management including the development of assisted reproduction technologies for non-domestic species was originally inspired and started by Christian Pitra at the Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research before his heart discovered evolutionary genetics. T. B. H. would like to thank personally my former teacher and mentor for his ideas and support which had an important impact on my own professional career.
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Hildebrandt, T.B., Göritz, F. & Hermes, R. Ultrasonography: an important tool in captive breeding management in elephants and rhinoceroses. Eur J Wildl Res 52, 23–27 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-005-0012-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-005-0012-4