Sperm Retention

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Madkins007

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Try this article, it is great! It is also relatively easy to read and understand!

The gist is...
- turtles store sperm: "Sperm storage tubules in turtles are located in the posterior portion of the albumin-secreting region of the oviduct, a position different from that of other vertebrates"

- lots of papas: "To date, only a handful of surveys have examined genetic paternity in turtle broods from nature, but virtually every study has documented multiple paternity, typically in a high percentage of clutches" and "sperm from multiple males are often present in a female's reproductive tract simultaneously, and that these stored sperm can result in multiple sires within a clutch."

- it lasts at least three years: " painted turtles on the Mississippi River, more than 20% of the 32 females assayed were documented to have used only one male's sperm each for at least two and in one case three consecutive years. "

- it does not seem to degrade much: "This sperm storage came at no apparent fitness cost to the females, because clutches fertilized by stored sperm both within and across years had the same hatching success rate as clutches fathered by newly acquired sperm "

This is a great article that covers a lot of the issues involved- why, benefits, etc.

Hope this helps!
 

Yvonne G

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Is this article in your library? You didn't give us the link.


Madkins007 said:
Try this article, it is great! It is also relatively easy to read and understand!

The gist is...
- turtles store sperm: "Sperm storage tubules in turtles are located in the posterior portion of the albumin-secreting region of the oviduct, a position different from that of other vertebrates"

- lots of papas: "To date, only a handful of surveys have examined genetic paternity in turtle broods from nature, but virtually every study has documented multiple paternity, typically in a high percentage of clutches" and "sperm from multiple males are often present in a female's reproductive tract simultaneously, and that these stored sperm can result in multiple sires within a clutch."

- it lasts at least three years: " painted turtles on the Mississippi River, more than 20% of the 32 females assayed were documented to have used only one male's sperm each for at least two and in one case three consecutive years. "

- it does not seem to degrade much: "This sperm storage came at no apparent fitness cost to the females, because clutches fertilized by stored sperm both within and across years had the same hatching success rate as clutches fathered by newly acquired sperm "

This is a great article that covers a lot of the issues involved- why, benefits, etc.

Hope this helps!
 

dmarcus

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This is a very interesting threads...Females torts know how to keep the species going...
 

JeffG

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onarock said:
I guess what I am saying is, even if you could do blood tests, what do you compare it to?

Wouldn't you test both the known Gpp male that you are breeding to her and the babies to determine if that male was the father? You wouldn't actually be trying to prove that the babies were Gpp, you would just be trying to prove that the "known" Gpp male was truly the father of the baby in question. You are assuming by all the evidence available that the mother and the current male are both Gpp.
 

JeffG

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onarock said:
Was Laura talking about a paternity test? My bad...

I'm not sure if that's what she was talking about or not, but I was thinking that would be the thing that you could positively test for.
 

armandoarturo

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This happend to me a while ago...
I had my first DT mature female, and a friend of mine gave me his big male...
So they did their thing, and the female laid a clutch of 9 eggs.
that same year, my friend asked me to give back his male tortoise, so I did.
The next year the female didnt produce any eggs.
Then, the year after that one, I got this little male from another friend, and I placed them together just one time... I wasnt exactly sure If it really was a male because it didnt show 100%.
When I placed them together the male started to bite and do all his stuff... So I really knew he was male for sure :p
I was there, and I could see that the male's penis didnt get into the female, he wasnt big enough for her, I guess.... :p poor guy...
And well... I took the little guy to another enclosure...
A month after that, the female was digging a burrow and laying a clutch of eggs. I was like whaaat the?
3 out of 8 eggs where fertile, So... what I was guessing is that they were actually from the past male... And Im 100% sure the new male didnt get into her.
So that makes it 2-3 years after the first matting... but low fertility rate.
I guess the female hormons started to work with the matting or something like that maybe???
 

onarock

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Might not have been a male at all. Females will mount other females. Females will lay eggs, fertile or not, if they are getting "attention" from males or other females that mount them.

armandoarturo said:
This happend to me a while ago...
I had my first DT mature female, and a friend of mine gave me his big male...
So they did their thing, and the female laid a clutch of 9 eggs.
that same year, my friend asked me to give back his male tortoise, so I did.
The next year the female didnt produce any eggs.
Then, the year after that one, I got this little male from another friend, and I placed them together just one time... I wasnt exactly sure If it really was a male because it didnt show 100%.
When I placed them together the male started to bite and do all his stuff... So I really knew he was male for sure :p
I was there, and I could see that the male's penis didnt get into the female, he wasnt big enough for her, I guess.... :p poor guy...
And well... I took the little guy to another enclosure...
A month after that, the female was digging a burrow and laying a clutch of eggs. I was like whaaat the?
3 out of 8 eggs where fertile, So... what I was guessing is that they were actually from the past male... And Im 100% sure the new male didnt get into her.
So that makes it 2-3 years after the first matting... but low fertility rate.
I guess the female hormons started to work with the matting or something like that maybe???
 

Tom

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armandoarturo said:
This happend to me a while ago...
I had my first DT mature female, and a friend of mine gave me his big male...
So they did their thing, and the female laid a clutch of 9 eggs.
that same year, my friend asked me to give back his male tortoise, so I did.
The next year the female didnt produce any eggs.
Then, the year after that one, I got this little male from another friend, and I placed them together just one time... I wasnt exactly sure If it really was a male because it didnt show 100%.
When I placed them together the male started to bite and do all his stuff... So I really knew he was male for sure :p
I was there, and I could see that the male's penis didnt get into the female, he wasnt big enough for her, I guess.... :p poor guy...
And well... I took the little guy to another enclosure...
A month after that, the female was digging a burrow and laying a clutch of eggs. I was like whaaat the?
3 out of 8 eggs where fertile, So... what I was guessing is that they were actually from the past male... And Im 100% sure the new male didnt get into her.
So that makes it 2-3 years after the first matting... but low fertility rate.
I guess the female hormons started to work with the matting or something like that maybe???

Seems right in line with the consensus. Thanks for sharing your story.
 

armandoarturo

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Im sure it was a male...
I havent seen a female with a little penis moving outside the cloaca :p
I really meant it when I said I was watching them :p

onarock said:
Might not have been a male at all. Females will mount other females. Females will lay eggs, fertile or not, if they are getting "attention" from males or other females that mount them.

armandoarturo said:
This happend to me a while ago...
I had my first DT mature female, and a friend of mine gave me his big male...
So they did their thing, and the female laid a clutch of 9 eggs.
that same year, my friend asked me to give back his male tortoise, so I did.
The next year the female didnt produce any eggs.
Then, the year after that one, I got this little male from another friend, and I placed them together just one time... I wasnt exactly sure If it really was a male because it didnt show 100%.
When I placed them together the male started to bite and do all his stuff... So I really knew he was male for sure :p
I was there, and I could see that the male's penis didnt get into the female, he wasnt big enough for her, I guess.... :p poor guy...
And well... I took the little guy to another enclosure...
A month after that, the female was digging a burrow and laying a clutch of eggs. I was like whaaat the?
3 out of 8 eggs where fertile, So... what I was guessing is that they were actually from the past male... And Im 100% sure the new male didnt get into her.
So that makes it 2-3 years after the first matting... but low fertility rate.
I guess the female hormons started to work with the matting or something like that maybe???
 

onarock

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Females can show their clitoris just like males. They can be long, but not as long as a male penis.

I believe it when you say you were watching. They can be tricky little buggers. :)

Just my opinion based on observations.
 

GeoTerraTestudo

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According to a study by Johnston et al. (2006), Russian tortoises can store sperm, and hatchlings within a single clutch can come from different fathers about 1/4 of the time. Please see below.


Johnston, E. E., M.S. Rand, and S.G. Zweifel. 2006. Detection of multiple paternity and sperm storage in a captive colony of the central Asian tortoise, Testudo horsfieldii. Canadian Journal of Zoology 84(4): 520-527.

Abstract:
Reproductive success is a critical measure of an organism's fitness. Determining reproductive success in vertebrates is confounded by the concealed mechanism and timing of fertilization (e.g., sperm competition and storage). To assess the relationship between observed mating behavior and reproductive success in the central Asian tortoise, Testudo horsfieldii Gray, 1844, we determined individual genotypes from a captive colony of adults and their offspring. We constructed a size-selected genomic library from T. horsfieldii and screened for polymorphic microsatellite markers. The screen resulted in identification of two novel microsatellite regions. Cross-species amplification of microsatellite markers using primers developed for the bog turtle, Glyptemys muhlenbergii (Schoepff, 1801), resulted in isolation of three additional polymorphic microsatellites for T. horsfieldii. The five loci, which have between 5 and 17 alleles and observed heterozygosities between 0.44 and 0.90, were used to determine the frequency of multiple paternity in the captive colony. We found evidence for multiple paternity in 27% of the clutches examined, as well as evidence for overwinter sperm storage and variance in adult male reproductive success. These data indicate that ample opportunity exists for sperm competition and female mate choice in T. horsfieldii.
 
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