Breeding period for wild Jackson's (T. j. j.)?

Vinyonga

Member
Hi all,

I hope this is the right part of the forum to post my question in. I've tried to do some research online on reproduction in wild Jackson's, but am mostly turning up results for the husbandry of captive chams. Does anyone know whether wild Jackson's have a particular breeding period, or if the females can be receptive year-round? I seem to recall reading something about a link with the rainy season (perhaps just for the first time breeding?), but that was a while ago and unfortunately I don't remember where I got the info!

Asking as I'm zoology student planning on doing some research on colouration, so trying to figure out whether I'll be able to include juveniles in my study, and when courting occurs etc.

Thank you! :)
 
BTW...good to see you're posting again....hope you get better/more responses this time! Are you researching coloration of the adults? For any particular reason?
 
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Thank you for the paper! One of the references within is particularly helpful, Lin and Nelson 1980 - according to them, peak ovulation occurs in August, gestation early July to Feb, parturition mid-Jan to March. I've only encountered three young T. j.s, but they were all in Feb/March, so that agrees nicely. Copulation March-May, interestingly, so if ovulation occurs months later I guess the females must store the sperm. And mating therefore coincides with the long rainy season, and birth with peak insect time apparently. T. hoehnelii, on the other hand, show continuous reproduction with two clutches/year. Really interesting how two so closely related and sympatric spp have such different reproductive strategies.

I'm still in the planning phase, but if covid and admin allow, I'll be doing my bachelor's dissertation on colouration (and from my above findings, just on adults, yes - but perhaps babies too at a later date). I hope it works out, it's very exciting!

Edit: having finished reading the paper, yes, they surmise that sperm storage is 3-6 months.
 
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