Research Article

Analysis of copulations in American mink females mated every day during the breeding season

Beata Seremak, Aleksandra Siekierska, Lidia Felska-Błaszczyk, Małgorzata Dziadosz-Styś, Bogdan Lasota, Marta Dworecka-Borczyk

1. Acta Sci. Pol. Zootechnica, 12(2), 2013, 49‒56

Abstract. The experiment was aimed to observe the behavior of ranch American mink females during the breeding season. The study was conducted on a group of 11 females of the color type Pearl, which were admitted to a male each day during the 13-day mating period. Each successful mating was noted, which allowed the capture the length of naturally variable intervals between mating encounters, and the number of copulations throughout the breeding season. In addition, the following reproductive parameters were determined: the length of pregnancy, total litter size at birth, live births per litter, and litter size at weaning. Based on the survey it was found that if mated daily, most females were prone to have a natural 3-5-day break during the breeding season. We found that the sexual activity of the female mink was very high, and that most of the females mated eight or nine times over the entire period.

Keywords: American mink, mating, reproduction