[ **up: [[Oestrous]]** ] --- # Polyoestrous [[2025-0313. The oestrus cycle has four phases - (1) pro-oestrus, (2) oestrus, (3) metoestrus, and (4) dioestrus.|Some ‘species may have many cycles per year (i.e. they are polyoestrous) and the male may be sexually active all the time.’]][^1] Polyoestrous means [[2025-0309. Polyoestrus = having two or more litters per year.|'having two or more litters/year.']][^2] [^1]: Elizabeth Martin and Robert Hine, *A Dictionary of Biology*, 6th edn. (Oxford University Press, 2008), s.v. ‘oestrus cycle (sexual cycle)’. [^2]: D. C. D. Happold (ed.) *Mammals of Africa, Vol. 3: Rodents, Hares and Rabbits* (London: Bloomsbury, 2013), p. 727.