Hormone field kits will provide scientific proof of whether wild elephants experience periods of ovarian inactivity similar to animals in human care. Using feces collected from captive elephants, field friendly progestin hormone kits that will allow easy monitoring of the estrous cycle activity in free-ranging elephants will be developed. These kits will be used to investigate how age, social rank and precipitation affect the estrous cycle dynamics of individually identifiable elephants in Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa and on the Ndarakwai Ranch, Tanzania. If ovarian inactivity is not found among free-ranging elephants, then this will suggest that captive facilities need to alter social and/or environmental conditions to improve ovarian function. These hormone kits will transform how the biology of elephants under field conditions is studied and as such will provide new tools for making sensible management decisions based on science. Gaining knowledge about the factors that naturally control estrous cycle activity of elephants will aid captive elephant managers worldwide by finding ways to maximize reproduction and create self-sustaining elephant populations.

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