Development of sexual behaviour in the male hamster.

Abstract

FUNCTIONALLY ADEQUATE SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR in mammals does not occur immediately after birth but instead appears after a sizable fraction of the individual's life has elapsed. The onset of mating behaviour is approximately coincident with widespread physiological changes in the organism. These facts are well established and need no further demonstration. However, a number of experiments have suggested that such details of sexual development as the age at onset of different responses and quantitative characteristics of behaviour are worthy of more extensive study since they may provide information concerning the physiological basis of adult copulatory behaviour.In the present experiment, sexual development of the male hamster was studied independently of sexual experience over the range from no behaviour to essentially stable adult behaviour. The hamster was selected as the experimental subject in order to provide data which can be compared with results of rat (Beach, 1942;Larsson, 1956;Stone, 1922) and guinea pig (Louttit, 1929;Webster & Young, 1951) studies. The adult mating pattern of the hamster is similar to that of the rat (Beach & Rabedeau, 1959) and a comparison of the two species will provide information concerning tie generality of behavioural changes occurring during sexual development. METHOD SubjectsThe Ss were 117 male golden hamsters (Cricetus auratus) of which 80 were born in the laboratory and, because of a lack of laboratory breeding space, 37 were obtained from a commercial breeder at 25-30 days of age. The laboratory-bred males were weaned at 20 days of age and placed two in a cage separated by a 3»-in. mesh hardware cloth partition. The purpose of this arrangement was to 1 This article is based on a dissertation submitted to the faculty of Yale University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in psychology.

Organization of mating behavior in male hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus).

“…These results resemble previous descriptions of male hamsters both in absolute levels and in the changes in III, EL, and IF exhibited across copulatory series (Arteaga-Silva et al, 2005; Beach & Rabedeau, 1959; Bunnell et al, 1977; Dewsbury, Lanier, & Oglesby, 1979; Huck, Lisk, Allison, & Van Dongen, 1986; Lehman, Powers, & Winans, 1983; Miernicki, Pospichal, & Powers, 1990; Rabedeau, 1963). They extend previous descriptions by documenting changes over series in MF and IR, but disagree with some previous reports of progressive increases in PEI (Beach & Rabedeau, 1959; Bunnell et al, 1977).…”

“…Because we did not view encounters from below, we cannot confirm that penile insertion accompanied all of these intromissions. Instead, our definition of this behavior incorporates both the pseudo- and complete-intromissions of Rabedeau (1963), who suggested that these are equivalent in their impact on the male. It also is the case that we relied entirely on overt behaviors and did not confirm the exchange of sperm during ejaculations.…”