Do female house mice, Mus domesticus, regulate their exposure to reproductive priming pheromones?

Abstract

Abstract. Prolonged contact with urine odours from grouped non-breeding female house mice can delay puberty and inhibit oestrous cycling in female conspecifics, while urine cues from males and pregnant females have the opposite effects. The hypothesis that females regulate their exposure to conspecific odours according to the reproductive priming effects of the cues was tested by measuring the initial (within 15 min) and longer-term (after 24 h) behavioural responses of females towards paired nest and feeding sites carrying different odours. Individual pre-pubertal and adult subjects from grouped housing conditions, and adults that had been isolated, were provided with a choice of clean versus female-odoured resource sites (either own group, unfamiliar group, pregnant or non-pregnant isolate female odours), or with a choice of sites carrying odours having opposite priming effects (male or pregnant female versus grouped female odours). Results were not compatible with the hypothesis that females responded according to the potential priming effects of the odours. Instead, females appeared to respond according to the familiarity or novelty of an odour, while avoidance of odours from isolated pregnant or non-pregnant females suggested that adult females may use marks to avoid potentially defended nest sites. Adult and pre-pubertal females showed very different responses to familiar and novel stimuli, consistent with the more restricted ranges of juvenile mice within the parental territory.