Characterization of basal seminal traits and semen cryopreservation in Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis)
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Little is known about the reproductive biology of the Canada lynx; virtually no data are available describing seminal parameters in this species and sperm cryopreservation studies have not been performed. Our aims were to 1) evaluate effectiveness of two semen collection methods: urethral catheterization (UC) and electroejaculation (EEJ); 2) characterize basal seminal traits throughout the breeding season; 3) compare effectiveness of semen cryopreservation using TEST egg yolk (TEY) or soy lecithin-based (SOY) media; and, 4) evaluate the ability of preserved Canada lynx sperm to fertilize domestic cat in vitro matured oocytes by heterologous in vitro fertilization. Testicular volume averaged 4.5±1.0 cm3. A significant relationship was found between animal body weight and testes volume (P<0.02), as well as for testicular volume and sperm counts per ejaculate (P<0.01). Fecal testosterone concentrations and sperm production were correlated (P<0.01). Electroejaculation was more reliable than UC for sperm collection (8.8 and 1.5 × 106 sperm, respectively; P<0.01). The percentage of sperm with normal morphology was greater in EEJ (29 ± 11 %) than in UC (18 ± 9 %) (P<0.05) samples and primary sperm structural abnormalities were more frequent in UC than EEJ samples (P<0.01). Overall, sperm quality was low in most males throughout the breeding season, but consistent with previous findings in the Lynx genus. Sperm production averaged 10.8 × 106 sperm/ejaculate with 45 % motility; 29 % normal morphology and 69 % acrosome integrity. Motility and acrosome integrity post-thaw declined over time, but were similar between spermatozoa cryopreserved in TEY and SOY media (P > 0.05). Cleavage rates did not differ between TEY (29 ± 17 %) and SOY (27 ± 14 %) and mean numbers of sperm bound to the zona pellucida was similar (20 sperm, TEY vs. 18 sperm, SOY), indicating that both extenders equally preserved the function of Canada lynx sperm for semen banking purposes. Our findings provide zoos and population managers with valuable information about normative reproductive traits in this species, establishing comparative benchmarks for assessing the reproductive potential of specific males recommended for breeding.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".