Research Performance Competence: The PI is industrious and has been productive with her research over the past 3/4 years. Her papers have been published in good journals. She certainly has the training and experience to conduct the behavioral components of the research. She has virtually no experience with endocrine research but Dr. Monfort has the appropriate background. I would have liked to see more evidence of the PI receiving actual hands on training in the endocrine work, in order to make her more self-reliant later.

Intrinsic Merit of the Research: Like alot of behavioral research, this project has a great deal of intrinsic merit and will provide interesting and new data regarding the evolutionary strategies and mechanisms behind successful reproduction and survival of offspring in ungulates. This particular area has received little attention thus far.

Utility or Relevance of the Research: Aside from the intrinsic merit of this research, there is little extrinsic value. While this research may reveal evolutionary strategies for offspring survival, via birth synchronization, it will have little effect on either survival of sable antelope in the wild or their management in captivity.

Effect of the Research on the Infrastructure of Science and Engineering: Perhaps the most important contribution to the infrastructure of science is the continued promotion of the use of non-capture methodologies (urinary/fecal analysis) for studying reproductive and nutritional physiology in free-roaming wildlife, however, this technology is far along and the number of species that have already been studied with this technology is rather large and the scope is worldwide. Perhaps the strongest argument is the application of this technology to behavioral studies, which has been neglected compared to reproductive or nutritional studies. More field ethologists should be using this technology.

Comments on the Merit of the Proposed Project: Basically the design of the proposed project is sound and the proposal is well-written. Most of my comments are minor and do not detract from the larger positive aspects of the project. (P.3) the herd size and composition may approximate conditions in the wild but the enclosure size does not; this may be relevant because of the effect of habitat upon social structure and social behaviors, and therefore reproductive success. This has been documented for pronghorn antelope. Thus, there may be an effect of this particular habitat upon social behaviors.