Male and Female Competitive Strategies of Wild House Mice Pairs (Mus Musculus Domesticus) Confronted With Intruders of Different Sex and Age in Artificial Territories

Abstract

Male and female aggression at different reproductive stages was investigated in pairs of wild mice. Fourteen pairs of laboratory-outbred wild mice were established, each pair living in a multiple set of cages, connected by runaways. Intruder tests were carried out at different stages of the reproductive cycle, i.e. 48 h after introduction, during pregnancy and lactation. In these stages, a female, a male and two pups were consecutively introduced in each territory (24 h separating each intrusion). Male residents were highly aggressive towards (and always intolerant of) male but not female intruders. Conversely, resident females preferentially attacked same sex intruders after colony establishment and during pregnancy, but they attacked either sex of intruder when nursing young. Seven out of 14 female intruders were tolerated 48 h after introduction of residents but tolerance of females decreased during pregnancy and lactation. Male and female residents were essentially responsible for the intolerance of same-sex intruders. Both males and females exhibited infanticide, but sex differences in the timing of attack on alien pups were observed. In the 7 colonies where the intruder female was tolerated (since that two females were present) only one female reproduced successfully. This suggests that, as in males, females of this stock compete for the opportunity to reproduce; they can be exclusively territorial or form a dominance hierarchy which probably determines reproductive success. While male competitive aggression appears to be mostly directed to other males, females seem largely responsible of the regulation of the reproductive potential of a deme unit throughout intrasexual aggression (intolerance towards other females), and possibly also inhibition of subordinate reproduction and killing of unrelated pups.

Kin-preferential cooperation, dominance-dependent reproductive skew, and competition for mates in communally nesting female house mice

“…Dominance among females as a measure of securing reproductive success has rarely been analysed in rodents, although it is well known that female aggression strongly limits productivity under over-crowded conditions in laboratory mouse groups (Lloyd 1975;Yasukawa et al 1985;Chovnick et al 1987;Parmigiani et al 1989;Palanza et al 1996;Chapman et al 1998). Here, we present the first empirical evidence that body weight might determine agonistic dominance in unrelated wild house mouse females, a fact long established in males ( van Zegeren 1980).…”

The complex social environment of female house mice (Mus domesticus)

“…Nevertheless, choosing a familiar female for social cooperation may result in close association with kin. Incidences of female competition over reproduction, mainly expressed through overt aggression, reproductive inhibition of other females or infanticide of nonoffspring, on the other hand, have been typically described for unfamiliar and unrelated females (Hurst, 1987;König, 1994a;Palanza et al, 1996Palanza et al, , 2005.…”

From house mouse to mouse house: the behavioural biology of free-living Mus musculus and its implications in the laboratory

“…Crowcroft, 1966). Throughout this maternal period, however, mothers may destroy their own litters, with causal explanations including disturbance, overcrowding and food-restriction, and functional or evolutionary explanations including optimising litter size to the available resources (see Krackow, 1989;Elwood, 1991;Palanza et al, 1996).…”