Today's storyteller is Dr Jarrod McKenna! Jarrod is a reproductive biologist at Monash University in Australia and today we talk about the Egyptian spiny mouse and studying reproductive biology. The Egyptian spiny mouse is a rare example of menstruation in mammals, especially a small prey sized mammal, as opposed to large mammals with few  to no actual predators (such humans and primates). In the lab they can use this mouse as a test subject of sorts or a surrogate for studying human reproductive health, which is part of what Jarrod's research is focused on. So today to sum it up, we talk about the Egyptian spiny mouse, mammal reproductive biology, about conservation and the ethics of whether we SHOULD do certain things; how captive spiny mice populations might be different after 20-40 years in captivity and how that differs from wild populations potentially. It was a very fascinating conversation and I hope you enjoy!

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You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and Twitter @storytellers42.

You can find Jarrod on Twitter @jarrod_mckenna.

Recorded on 15 August 2021.