Behaviour and fecundity of female rats mated with preferred or non-preferred males
1987
Taylor, G.T. | Weiss, J.
Sexually experienced female rats were allowed to choose between two inaccessible males. Approximately half of the females developed a consistent preference, and the most 'discriminating' females were mated with either their preferred or their non-preferred male. Females without a decided preference were mated with one of the two males randomly selected by the experimenter. The pairs of discriminating females and preferred males had higher levels of non-sexual contacts, solicitations and sexual activity than the pairs of discriminating females and non-preferred males. Specifically, the former pairings were characterized by higher levels of non-sexual contact and affiliative behaviour (crawl over and under responses) and solicitation response (ear-wiggling and darting) by the female and shorter latencies for intromissions and ejaculations than the pairings with a non-preferred male. The pairs that included non-dicriminating females behaved more like pairs with a dicriminating female and a preferred male than those with a discriminating female and a non-preferred male. Even so, the number of females delivering litters and the size of the litters did not differ between the different experimental pairings. These data suggest that a discriminating female rat is not conferred an obvious reproductive advantage over a less discriminating female.
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