Table 3. Characteristics of the frozen-thawed capercaillie semen depending on freezing method (means ± SD).

Male’s number	Freezing methods	No of samples	Morphological forms of sperm [%]
			Live in total	Live normal	Bulb head	Bent neck	Midpiece deformations	Other deformations
51	pellets	12	43.8 b ±9.9 x	25.4 ab ±8.0	8.3 cd ±5.3	6.8 b ±2.8	3.0 a ±1.8 x	0.3 ab ±0.2
	straws		57.1 abc ±13.9 y	27.6 a ±9.3	12.9 c ±5.1	9.6 cd ±4.5	6.1 bc ±2.6 y	0.9 b ±0.4
58	pellets	9	38.4 bc ±5.7 x	13.3 cd ±5.7 x	9.1 cd ±2.9	13.6 a ±6.0 x	2.0 abc ±1.3 x	0.4 ab ±0.2
	straws		64.4 ab ±7.5 y	22.9 ab ±7.3 y	13.8 c ±5.7	21.3 a ±5.4 y	5.4 bc ±4.0 y	1.0 b ±0.9
9	pellets	8	39.7 b ±7.6 x	24.7 ab ±6.6	7.3 d ±3.3 x	4.8 bc ±3.0 x	2.6 ab ±1.1 x	0.3 ab ±0.1
	straws		68.2 a ±8.9 y	26.4 a ±6.9	17.3 bc ±3.0 y	13.3 cd ±6.4 y	10.9 a ±3.4 y	0.3 bc ±0.2
49	pellets	11	55.0 a ±16.3 x	29.3 a ±9.0 x	19.6 a ±7.6 x	4.2 bc ±3.5 x	1.7 abc ±1.0 x	0.2 b ±0.3
	straws		66.4 ab ±13.3 y	21.7 ab ±5.1 y	24.0 a ±6.4 y	14.7 bc ±9.0 y	4.0 c ±2.4 y	0.0 c ±0.0
67	pellets	8	40.8 b ±11.7 x	19.2 bc ±7.6	16.7 ab ±3.9	3.7 bc ±2.0 x	1.2 c ±0.7 x	0.0 b ±0.0
	straws		56.1 b ±20.2 y	22.1 ab ±11.7	17.7 bc ±9.2	9.1 d ±6.1 y	6.9 b ±3.2 y	0.3 bc ±0.1
72	pellets	12	30.0 c ±7.3 x	11.8 d ±5.4	13.0 bc ±7.3	1.9 c ±1.4 x	2.5 ab ±1.6 x	0.8 a ±1.0 x
	straws		62.2 ab ±13.3 y	9.8 c ±4.3	14.6 c ±4.3	19.7 ab ±7.3 y	11.4 a ±3.4 y	6.7 a ±4.8 y
79	pellets	9	41.5 b ±6.7	22.2 b ±8.0	11.1 cd ±4.6	6.5 b ±3.5	1.5 bc ±0.7 x	0.2 b ±0.1
	straws		49.7 c ±10.7	16.7 b ±4.4	19.9 b ±6.0	8.4 d ±5.3	4.7 bc ±2.9 y	0.0 c ±0.0
Total/Average	pellets	69	42.5±12.4 x	22.2±9.0	12.4±6.7 x	5.6±4.7 x	2.1±1.4 x	0.3±0.5
	straws		60.7±13.8 y	22.4±8.8	17.0±7.0 y	13.6±7.9 y	6.6±3.8 y	1.0±2.2

^a,b,c,d—means in columns for the same freezing method, followed by different superscripts differ significantly (P<0.05);

^x,y—means in columns for the same male indicate significant differences between freezing method (P<0.05).