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
  • Wild cheetahs may go into estrus and become pregnant at any time throughout the year.
    — Jackson Landers, Smithsonian, 7 Apr. 2017
  • Making their jobs more difficult, mares can come into estrus a mere six days after giving birth.
    — National Geographic, 31 Oct. 2016
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Consider the case of Herman, an adult male Indian rhinoceros who had caught the scent of a female in estrus.
    — Jared Diamond, Discover Magazine, 11 Nov. 2019
  • 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
  • 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
  • While it’s well established that lengthening daylight triggers a cat’s estrus, the effect of rising temperatures on kitten season isn’t yet understood.
    — Sachi Mulkey, WIRED, 23 Mar. 2024
  • 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
  • These results constitute the first direct economic evidence for the existence and importance of estrus in contemporary human females, in a real-world work setting.
    — Discover Magazine, 19 Nov. 2019
  • Electricity is used to stimulate cell division, and, when this embryo is still just a bundle of cells on the scale of micrometres, a second dog, also in estrus, is operated on to become a surrogate mother.
    — Alexandra Horowitz, The New Yorker, 24 June 2024
  • 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
  • Last year in 2025, Qing Bao experienced her first estrus cycle in March and April, followed by her first pseudopregnancy in August and September.
    — Ryan Brennan, Kansas City Star, 8 Apr. 2026

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.

Last Updated: