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Use of a portable ultrasound machine to determine pregnancy and uterine litter size for wild Gunnison’s prairie dogs (Cynomys gunnisoni)

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Abstract

Accurate estimates of population dynamics play a major role in formulating conservation strategies for Gunnison’s prairie dogs (Cynomys gunnisoni) and other keystone species. Over 5 years (2014–2018) at Valles Caldera National Preserve in NM, USA, we used a portable ultrasound machine (PUM) to investigate the presence or absence of pregnancy, and to determine uterine litter size for 238 pregnant female Gunnison’s prairie dogs from two colonies. We compared litter size at weaning for 168 of these 238 females and we found no significant difference between uterine litter size and litter size at weaning. For 76 of these 168 females (45%), estimates of uterine litter size and litter size at weaning were identical. We detected no significant variation among years for uterine litter size versus litter size at weaning. To our knowledge, our research is the first to compare uterine litter size to litter size at weaning for the same group of females living under natural conditions.

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Acknowledgments

For help with recording ultrasounds, we thank T. Cornwell, M. Dart, R. Farid, J. Gedert, I. Hirschler, B. Jones, C. Poje, K. Rave, M. Rivera-Rodriguez, and T. Townsend. We are grateful to D. Boesch, E. Davidson, Robert Gardner, Peter Goodwin, and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science for facilitating JLH’s long-term research with prairie dogs. For assistance with our research, we thank the following personnel at Valles Caldera National Preserve: D. Davis, D. Mccray, R. Parmenter, and Jorge Silva-Bañuelos.

Funding

We received financial assistance from the Denver Zoological Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Texas State University, 601 University Dr, San Marcos, TX, 78666, USA

    Brittany A. Minnig

  2. University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Appalachian Laboratory, Frostburg, MD, 21532, USA

    John L. Hoogland

Authors
  1. Brittany A. Minnig
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  2. John L. Hoogland
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brittany A. Minnig.

Ethics declarations

Our research was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (Protocol number F-AL-15-13), and complied with current guidelines of the American Society of Mammalogists (Sikes and The Animal Care and Use Committee of the American Society of Mammalogists 2016). The number of our Scientific Research Permit at Valles Caldera National Preserve, US Department of the Interior, was VALL-2017-SCI-0004.

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Communicated by: Shuiqiao Yuan

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Minnig, B.A., Hoogland, J.L. Use of a portable ultrasound machine to determine pregnancy and uterine litter size for wild Gunnison’s prairie dogs (Cynomys gunnisoni). Mamm Res 65, 869–874 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-020-00530-x

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