Firstly, breeding YOY will help us to continue to grow our captive pocket mouse population, which will allow us to establish new wild populations of this charismatic and ecologically important rodent. This achievement is important for a number of reasons. I kept my fingers crossed and on Day 19 of her pregnancy, it became clear from her large weight gain and swollen abdomen that #154 was indeed pregnant! A week after her mating, she began building a large nest- an excellent sign that she was preparing herself for pups. Pacific pocket mice have a short gestation period of approximately 23 days, but it is difficult to tell whether or not a female is pregnant until Day 19 of their pregnancy, so it often feels like a very long wait! I watched #154's progress carefully, weighing her every few days and looking for behavioral signs that she was pregnant. ![]() I was thrilled to have finally managed a YOY mating, but I cautioned myself not to get too excited that she was pregnant- approximately only 50% of mated females go on to give birth to a litter of pups in captivity. So imagine my surprise as, last month, I watched a female YOY (the lovely #154) perform beautiful courtship behavior with a male before finally laying on her side and mating with him- our first ever YOY mating! Unfortunately, we have never managed to breed our female ‘young-of-the-year’ (or YOY, as we affectionately call them) in the year that they were born in captivity. This quick onset of sexual maturity is great news for a captive breeding program such as ours, as it provides us with the opportunity to grow our population quickly. One of the more interesting aspects of Pacific pocket mouse reproduction is that females can breed and give birth in the same breeding season in which they themselves were born. We’ve learnt a few things over the years and we’ve had great success with our breeding program, but we are always learning. Unfortunately, this period of female receptivity can be as short as just an hour, making it a tricky business to mate our captive mice. As a solitary species, both males and females are highly aggressive and generally only interact when the female is in estrus and ready to mate. Pacific pocket mouse breeding is- contrary to want you might think- no easy task. Every litter of pups born at the captive breeding facility is an achievement, but these four little babies are extra special. I peak through the small hole that I've made and spot a stark contrast of bright pink against the white nest- four tiny, wiggling Pacific pocket mouse pups. ![]() I don a pair of latex gloves and- ever so gently- tease open a fluffy white nest that is 10 times the size of the little female pocket mouse that built it. As the sun goes down over the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, my work day begins at the off exhibit Pacific pocket mouse captive breeding facility.
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