| Abstrakt: |
Stoats (Mustela erminea), in the wild state (Deanesly, 1943) and in captivity (Gulamhusein, 1973), produce only one litter annually due to the occurrence of delayed implantation which extends from the summer of one year to the spring of the next. Implantation occurs in early March and parturition takes place some 4 weeks later. The females come into heat during early summer and, in the wild, virtually all of them are impregnated presumably before the family bond is broken.Unlike the roe-deer (Short & Hay, 1966) and the nine-banded armadillo (Talmage, Buchanan, Kraintz, Lazowasem & Zarrow, 1954), the stoat (Gulamhusein & Thawley, 1972) and other mustelids have `relatively inactive' CL during the delay period. Low concentrations of progesterone in the CL of the European badger (Canivenc, Short & Bonnin-Laffargue, 1966) and in the |
