Is Self‐Grooming by Male Prairie Voles a Predictor of Mate Choice?

Abstract

Self‐grooming by mammals is a form of scent dissemination in which individuals anoint themselves with salivary, anogenital, and other body odours. Self‐grooming has been proposed to be a sexually selected trait favoured in reproductive competition and sexual attraction. We tested the hypothesis that females would show a mating preference for males that self‐groomed more than a reproductive competitor that groomed less. In mate‐choice experiments in which females had a choice of two tethered males, non pair‐bonded females did not choose males based on their frequency of self‐grooming. In a second experiment in which pair‐bonded females in postpartum oestrus had access to their current mate and two strange males, strange males groomed significantly more than pair‐bonded mates, yet attained the fewest copulations. Non pair‐bonded females and pair‐bonded males and females groomed significantly less often than did non pair‐bonded males. Self‐grooming behaviour was consistent with the sexual attraction hypothesis, but the frequency of self‐grooming did not increase a male's mating success. We conclude that the frequency and time spent self grooming are not good predictors of mating success.