Higher offspring mortality in deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus bairdii) that spontaneously present with large nest building behaviour

Abstract

Nesting is a normal, evolutionary conserved rodent behavioural phenotype that is expressed for purposes of breeding, safety, and thermal regulation. Further, nesting is commonly assessed as marker of overall rodent health and wellbeing, with poorer nesting performance generally proposed to resemble a worse state of health. Deer mice can be bidirectionally separated with 30 % of mice presenting with excessively large nesting behaviour (LNB). All laboratory-housed deer mice are exposed to identical environmental conditions. Thus, the functional purpose of LNB remains unknown. Considering the evolutionary functions of nesting, we hypothesized that LNB will be related to an inflated drive to breed and nurse offspring. After breeding two generations of offspring from six ‘normal’ nesting (NNB) and seven LNB expressing pairs, our data showed that while as fertile as NNB expressing pairs, offspring survival of LNB mice were notably worse (67.9 % vs. 98.3 %). In conclusion, variance in nesting behaviour should be considered when animal health and wellbeing is considered, since it may point to underlying biobehavioural perturbations.