How to Use estrus in a Sentence

estrus

noun
  • During the peak rut, a lot of estrus does mist the woods, and bucks had lots of choices.
    Michael Hanback, Outdoor Life, 4 Dec. 2019
  • These stags are in peak-rut form, all vying for the attention of the hinds in estrus.
    Katie Hill, Outdoor Life, 24 Aug. 2023
  • The animals are in estrus for only 24 to 72 hours each year.
    Michael E. Ruane, Washington Post, 27 Aug. 2019
  • Mei Xiang, who is 18 years old and has birthed three cubs at the zoo, has been showing signs over the past few weeks of being in estrus.
    Dana Hedgpeth, Washington Post, 23 May 2017
  • By killing cubs that aren’t his, the male forces the female back into estrus, allowing him to mate and sire cubs of his own.
    Doug Main, National Geographic, 27 June 2018
  • But one of the females was in estrus, her rump exceptionally pink and swollen, and four males in the group were too excited to sleep.
    Natalie Angier, New York Times, 10 Sep. 2016
  • Festo talks me through the drama as the bull ignores the matriarch to diligently sniff for a female in estrus.
    Saumya Ancheri, Condé Nast Traveler, 4 Apr. 2022
  • Wild cheetahs may go into estrus and become pregnant at any time throughout the year.
    Jackson Landers, Smithsonian, 7 Apr. 2017
  • The deer was sixty yards away, moving steadily, its head down, probably following the scent of doe in estrus.
    New York Times, 31 Mar. 2020
  • Based on traces of sperm found in the days before the birth of the first joey, the researchers found that the wallabies’ estrus, or mating period, began before the pregnancy was over.
    Veronique Greenwood, New York Times, 2 Mar. 2020
  • Making their jobs more difficult, mares can come into estrus a mere six days after giving birth.
    National Geographic, 31 Oct. 2016
  • Plus, deer kept moving in faster than they could be sterilized, which Curtis attributes to new bucks being attracted to the ongoing estrus of the does that didn’t get pregnant.
    Brooke Jarvis, The New Yorker, 8 Nov. 2021
  • Unlike female lions, which tend to become receptive to mating—also known as coming into heat, or estrus—at the same time, leopards do not.
    Doug Main, National Geographic, 27 June 2018
  • Britain, and Wales in particular, grows lamb at a relatively natural pace, with ewes coming into estrus just once a year, to be mated with rams in the fields, to give birth in the spring, after five months gestation.
    Washington Post, 17 Aug. 2019
  • Females go into estrus for only a couple days annually, and Mei Xiang and her mate, Tian Tian, have previously encountered difficulties with natural conception.
    Katherine J. Wu, Smithsonian, 5 July 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'estrus.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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