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Breeding Season Extending: As with fox, mink, and chinchilla, nutria became an item for breeding-stock promoters. In the early 1960's, however, the ballyhoo subsided and the raising of nutria settled down to a serious occupation. The advantage of farm-bred nutria, as with other ranched animals, is the ability to produce uniform colors and qualities which facilitate marketing.
Breeding and Pelting.—The usual breeding season for mink is early March, when the females enter their estrous cycle. Mink reach sexual maturity during the first year, at the age of about 10 months. There is only one breeding season during the year. A widely practiced breeding system is to mate each female twice at an interval of 7 to 10 days. An analysis of ranch data shows better production obtained from those animals mated twice.
The rabbit is sociable and terrestrial in its habits. Numbers may live together in a warren, a communal burrow of numerous entrance and exit holes leading to a network of underground passages and a central chamber. The animal is a fast multiplier, the breeding season extending from February to September and, in a mild climate, to the whole year. The male is known as a "buck," the female as a "doe," the plural as a "nest," and the act of giving birth to young as "kindling."
The breeding season for horses in the temperate regions is during the late winter, spring, and early summer; it is variable in the tropics. Most horse breeders do not use colts and fillies for breeding service until they are four years old (horses reach physical maturity at about 5 years of age). Younger animals, although capable of reproduction at about two years of age or less, are still growing and are usually in training and competition. |
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