RECORDING A FETUS AND BIRTH EVENT
A fetus is an unborn offspring of a mammal. The presence of a fetus can be identified through blood and urine tests or by ultrasound. IMPORTANT NOTE: If a joey is found in a marsupial’s pouch it is NOT a fetus! It has been born and should be recorded as a Birth.
Finding Births or Hatches That Did Not Survive for 30 Days
Accessioning a Fetus
There are two ways to accession a fetus:
- Go to Start > Accession > Fetus > Fetus Identified
- From the dam’s record go to Details > Actions > Fetus Identified From This Animal. The advantage of this option is that the Dam, Taxonomy, Taxonomy Determination, Collection, Enclosure and Conception Type and Location will prefill, saving you data entry time. This option is only available for sex types of Female, Undetermined or Indeterminate.
Either of these approaches will take you to the same accession screen. Some things to note:
- A Local ID is not required for a Fetus Identified but it can be entered.
- A Life Stage of Fetus will automatically prefill. If you will not be tracking Life Stages, you may want to delete that by selecting the “Select One” option.
- Rearing Information can be activated here but we suggest not making any assumptions at this point.
- An Expected Birth Date can be recorded and Users often will use that date to create Calendar Alerts. This date does not display in the record.
- We recommend adding a note to the dam’s record regarding the presence of a Fetus.
- The entity will display as Fetus.
Recording a Death of a Fetus
Should the fetus die you would record a Death just as you would for an animal that had been born:
- My Transactions > Add Transaction > Disposition > Death
- Fetal Death (Abortion, Reabsorbed or Stillborn) should be selected for the Relevant Death Information.
- The Notes section should include further details on the Death.
- We recommend adding a note to the dam’s record regarding the fetal Death.
- The entity will remain a Fetus.
- If the newborn dies immediately after birth, a Birth Event should be recorded and then a Death.
record
Recording a Birth of a Fetus
The Birth of a Fetus is recorded as an Event and not a Transaction. This is because the Ownership and Physical Statuses at your facility have not changed.
- My Transactions > Add Transaction > Record Event > Birth Event for an Accessioned Fetus.
- If you recorded a Local ID for the fetus it will display but not be editable. If you did not record a Local ID it will be mandatory at this time.
- If you will be tracking Life Stages record “Neonate”. If you are not tracking Life Stages remember to check that the default of “Fetus” created during the accession has been removed.
- Notes can capture additional details.
- We recommend adding a note to the dam’s record regarding the Birth Event.
- The entity will now be an Individual.
Finding Births or Hatches That Did Not Survive for 30 Days
To find the answer to this question you can use Column Customization to fine tune and complete your search. For example, you want to know how many red pandas were born at your facility that did not survive 30 days. To get your answer complete the following steps:
-
Use an Animal Advanced Search
- Select Local
- Select All Animals
- Whether or not you check to Include Incomplete Accessions is up to you
- Taxonomy = red panda
- Birth Institution = your institution
-
From the search results grid
- Use Column customization and select both DOB/Established Date and Status columns to display.
- Move these columns so they are next to each other.
- Sort Status column by Descending. This will place all of the Dead animals at the top.
- Compare the DOB/Established Date with Dead as of Date
- Any animals with DOB/Established Date less than 30 days from the Dead as of Date did not survive for 30 days.
Revised 5 March 2025
It is the mission of Species360 to facilitate international collaboration in the collection and sharing of information on animals and their environments for zoos, aquariums and related organizations.
www.Species360.org – Global Information Serving Conservation