Age Estimation and Growth-Rates of Captive and Wild Pouch Young of Petrogale-Assimilis

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Abstract
The growth of pouch young of captive and wild P. assimilis was modelled by modified exponential growth curves for the head length and Gompertz curves for the pes length. These curves give less biased, more repeatable and more accurate age estimates that the corresponding linear models. For both the wild and captive groups, there were significant differences between individuals in the growth parameters for both head and pes. However, there were no significant differences between the corresponding composite curves generated for the captive and wild macropodids. Head length was a better predictor of age than pes length. The accuracy of prediction decreased with age for both measurements.

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