Male-soiled bedding preference

Unlike control females, chemically naive females do not prefer the volatile components of male odors compared to female odors. When these females are allowed contact with the odors, however, they demonstrate robust preferences for the male odors. Critically, initially naive females that receive contact experience with male soiled bedding as adults display sexual odor preferences when subsequently... 

Table 25.1 Effects of dopaminergic drugs on preference for male-soiled bedding. 

Mole rats of the superspecies Spalax ehrenbergi occur in four main chromosome forms 2n = 52, 54, 58, and 60. Females of two of these forms (52 and 58) were given choices between soiled bedding (or urine) from males of a homochromoso-mal or a heterochromosomal form. The females were estrous or diestrous. Only estrous females preferred soiled bedding and urine of homochromosomal males, measured in time spent near the odor samples. Diestrous females showed no preference (Nevo etal, 1976). 

Discrimination of species odors, and hy inference, reproductive isolation between species by means of odors, has been demonstrated for many species. Early examples are bank voles, Ckthrionomysglareolus (Godfrey, 1958), Peromyscus spp. (Moore, 1965 Doty, 1972),M sspp. (Bowers and Alexander, 1967), andger-bils (Dagg and Windsor, 1971). Male naked mole rats (superspecies Spalax ehren-hergi, Spalacidae) preferred odors from estrous females of their own to a different karyotype in a two-choice apparatus. The odors used were those of soiled bedding and urine from females (Nevo etah, 1976). 

Although pheromones from a male of a strain different to that of the stud are necessary to block pregnancy, it has not been possible to readily train female mice to discriminate these two strains of male bedding for food reward. However, female mice do show a preference for bedding from intact males compared with that from castrated males. It is the urine-soiled bedding from intact males and not castrates that contains the... 

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