Copulatory behavior and nest building behavior of wild house mice (Mus musculus).

Abstract

The copulatory behavior and nest building behavior of wild house mice (Mus musculus) were examined in an attempt to study the effects of domestication on these behaviors. In the first experiment, 17 male and 17 female wild house mice were observed on a total of 68 tests of copulatory behavior, each carried to a satiety criterion of 90 min with no intromissions. The basic copulatory pattern was found to be identical to that of domesticated strains of house mice. However, the wild house mice appeared more extreme in certain of the quantitative aspects of copulatory behavior than most inbred strains. In the second experiment, 9 male and 10 female wild house mice and 10 male and 10 female C57BL/6J inbred house mice were tested for nest building behavior for 28 consecutive days. The nest building of wild house mice appeared similar to that of most domesticated house mice, although wild house mice used less cotton in building nests than did domesticated animals.