Posted on 04/18/2006 7:28:04 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Wolf’s Phantom Pregnancy Fools Zookeepers
Zookeepers expecting a litter of wolf cubs were disappointed after discovering that a female Korean wolf in captivity at the Seoul Grand Park Zoo was actually in the midst of a phantom pregnancy. It would have been the first time a Korean wolf became pregnant by artificial insemination.
After the sudden death of a male wolf, the zoo collected sperm from the animal and kept it in storage for a week before attempting the artificial insemination of a female in heat at the time. Some 50 days later, the wolf’s abdomen began to bulge, the results of a hormone test came back positive, and the animal started digging holes for the birth. But on the 70th day, long after the standard gestation period of 60-65 days had passed, there were still no signs of a delivery and the zoo ran an ultrasound test. It showed there were no cubs inside the animal.
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| A female (left) and male wolf last December at the Seoul Grand Park Zoo, before the male wolf died in January. |
“In the wild, the senior male and female wolves in the pack usually mate with each other, and the other females experience phantom pregnancies to be able to feed their offspring in case the female wolf dies,” an expert at the zoo said. “But in a captive environment, instances of phantom pregnancy are rare.”
(englishnews@chosun.com )
Ping!
Is that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes? (placenta not pictured)
Just a little bit pg, huh.
False pregnancies are very common in dogs. I've had them have milk, gain weight and even mother a litter of stuffed toys (and an old shoe).
susie
...and now you know why the old boy's smiling.
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