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The last female was an offspring of fossas born in captivity. This individual was housed adjacent to its
parents and showed a small body size and a masculinization as described for juvenile females
(H
AWKINS
et al., 2002), even though it was past the age of 3 years.
The two male individuals showed unilateral cryptorchism of the right testicle. Using transcutaneous
ultrasound, in one animal the cryptic testicle was detected in the inguinal region. An examination of
this animal by computed tomography showed a detailed picture of the os penis, while the sexual
glands could not be clearly visualized. Partial cryptorchism might be heritable, but does not always
correlate with the fertility of the individual.
In conclusion, ultrasound has proved to be an ideal tool to visualize the female and male genital
organs of the fossa and could thus be described in live animals for the first time.
The assessment of the reproductive health of a great part of the European zoo population of fossas
revealed an alarming high percentage (~33%) of adult fossas showing reproductive pathologies, which
may have an impact on future breeding efforts.
We suggest that these findings might be correlated with the high inbreeding of the captive population
(W
INKLER
, 2000), which needs to be proven by genetic studies. However, there is no data available for
wild fossa populations.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the always friendly and helpful staff of the cooperating zoos: ARTIS Zoo,
Amsterdam, Zoologischer Garten Berlin, Zoologická záhrada Bratislava, Tierpark Chemnitz,
Colchester Zoo, Zoo Duisburg, Zoologická zahrada Dvur Králové, Zoologická zahrada Usti nad
Labem, with special thanks to Mark Hoyer, Kristina Tomasova, Anthony Tropeano, and Hermann Will,
who greatly helped to make the study possible and John Lewis, Kopcok Milan and Jirí Váhala who
supported us with their experience in anaesthesia of zoo animals. We also want to thank Lesley
Dickie, who has got a great knowledge about fossas and never hesitates to lend a helping hand.
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