Unique reproductive strategy in the swamp wallaby

Abstract

Reproduction in mammals requires distinct cycles of ovulation, fertilization, pregnancy, and lactation often interspersed with periods of anoestrus when breeding does not occur. Macropodids, the largest extant species of marsupials, the kangaroos and wallabies, have a very different reproductive strategy to most eutherian mammals whereby young are born at a highly altricial stage of development with the majority of development occurring over a lengthy lactation period. Furthermore, the timings of ovulation and birth in some species occurs within a very short interval of each other (sometimes hours). Female swamp wallabies have an oestrous cycle shorter than their pregnancy length and were, therefore, speculated to mate and form a new embryo before birth thereby supporting two conceptuses at different stages of pregnancy. To confirm this, we used high-resolution ultrasound to monitor reproduction in swamp wallabies during pregnancy. Here, we show that females ovulate, mate, and form a new embryo prepartum while still carrying a full-term fetus in the contralateral uterus. This embryo enters embryonic diapause until the newborn leaves the pouch 9 mo later. Thus, combined with embryonic diapause, females are continuously pregnant and lactating at the same time throughout their reproductive life, a unique reproductive strategy that completely blurs the normal staged system of reproduction in mammals.