CRB: Practical Assessment of Reproductive Biology of an Endangered or Threatened Species

所有37种巨蜥都被认为是受威胁或濒危物种。栖息地的破坏和人类的干预已经对这些蜥蜴（Varanus属）的许多种群造成了严重的干扰。使这种多样性减少更加复杂的是，巨蜥在圈养环境下不能很好地繁殖。事实上，只有从自然种群中收集到足够的行为和生理信息后，才能成功地进行选定物种的圈养繁殖。在获得非洲纳米比亚自然保护部的许可后，菲利普斯博士将在稀树草原巨蜥的自然栖息地对它们进行研究。他和他的同事普拉特博士将综合一系列实地和实验室研究，确定雄性和雌性行为与荷尔蒙的关系，检查成功孵化卵子所需的环境和社会条件，并确定导致雌性巨蜥繁殖功能障碍的原因。这些发现不仅提供了与其他种类进行比较的基线数据，而且建立了强调自然繁殖的行为和内分泌方面的生态生理学数据库，可以证明维持可存活种群的近似解决方案。事实上，从这项工作中获得的信息对于建立成功的圈养繁殖计划至关重要，这将使该物种得以保存，并最终将这些巨蜥重新引入野外。

All 37 species of monitor lizards are considered as threatened or endangered. Habitat destruction and human intervention have caused serious disturbances in numerous populations of these lizards (genus Varanus). Complicating this decrease in diversity is that monitor lizards do not reproduce well in captivity. Indeed successful captive propagation of selected species has only occurred after sufficient behavioral and physiological information has been collected from natural populations. With permission from the Department of Nature Conservation in Namibia, Africa, Dr. Phillips will study savanna monitor lizards in their natural habitat. Integrating a series of field and laboratory studies, he and his colleague, Dr. Pratt, will determine the hormonal correlates of behavior in males and females, examine the environmental and social conditions required for successful hatching of eggs, and determine what causes reproductive dysfunction in captive female monitor lizards. Not only will these findings provide baseline data from which the other varanid species can be compared, but the establishment of ecophysiological data base that emphasizes the behavioral and endocrinological aspects of natural reproduction could proved a proximate solution for maintaining viable populations. Indeed information originating from this work is essential to establish successful captive breeding programs which will allow for the preservation of the species and the eventual reintroduction of these monitor lizards into the wild.