Quick Dips

Observing
Ovulating Oryx

Thousands of miles from their Arabian home, scimitar-horned oryx are having their intimate personal lives studied by Jennifer Bowen, a Masters student at Lincoln University. She and her supervisor, Dr Graham Barrell are working in collaboration with the Orana Park Trust in Christchurch, and its staff.

Information about the breeding biology of the endangered oryx is lacking, making it hard to utilise techniques such as artificial insemination or embryo transfer with any degree of certainty. The main aim of the research is to determine the length of the ovulatory cycle in females, which is essential information for carrying out artificial procedures and has not been studied before.