University of South Florida St. Petersburg Student Research Journal, Vol. 1, Issue 1, article 4 : Geometric Probability of Mating Success in Horses, Equus ferus caballus

Alternate Title

Student Research Journal (USFSP)

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2012

Date Issued

February 2012

Date Available

February 2012

ISSN

2572-4339

Abstract

The horse, Equus ferus caballus, mates in the dorsoventral position, a back-to-front mounting position common to most terrestrial quadrupeds. Because neither horse can see their genitals during mating, their bodies must be geometrically aligned for stallions to successfully delivery their sperm into the mare's vaginal canal. In this study, a conservative estimate of the random probability of mating success was calculated in the same way as one would calculate the random probability of a dart hitting the center of a target. One would determine the area of the bull's-eye (the mare's vagina) relative to the area of the entire target (the mare's posterior). A conservative estimate of the random probability of mating success for horses was ~ 0.8% or less than one chance out of a hundred. The adaptations for mating success in the wild and through animal husbandry are discussed.

Comments

7 pp.

Publisher

University of South Florida St. Petersburg

Sponsorship

Mentored by Dr. Leon Hardy and Dr. Deby Cassill

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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