We observed cyclic hormonal patterns (presence of progesterone
and nonprogesterone phases) for both manatees
during the first year, but only for the animal Ti-057 during
the second year. Therefore, we observed only three
complete cycles in all samples analyzed. The cycle length
ranged from 42 to 48 days (mean of 44.67 days) (Table 1;
Fig. 1). The progesterone and nonprogesterone phases
showed a mean duration of 19.00 and 27.33 days, respectively
(Table 1).
We observed two distinct salivary estradiol peaks during
all cycles analyzed, with the first peak occurring before
the rise in salivary progesterone and the second peak followed
by a return to basal progesterone values (Fig. 1). The
interval between these peaks was 23.33
±
9.20 days (range
14–34 days).