Exposure to strange adults does not cause pregnancy disruption or infanticide in the gray-tailed vole |
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Authors: | Helen M de la Maza Jerry O Wolff Amber Lindsey |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University Corvallis, OR 97331, USA, US;(2) Department of Zoology, Oregon State University, Corvallis OR 97331, USA, US |
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Abstract: | A widely accepted paradigm in mammalian behavioral biology is that exposure to unfamiliar males causes pregnancy disruption
in female rodents (commonly known as the Bruce effect). This behavioral phenomenon has been demonstrated in the laboratory
with at least 12 species of rodents, primarily within the genus Microtus, and is supposedly an adaptation that provides male perpetrators with reproductive access to females, and functions, for
females, as a counterstrategy to infanticide. However, neither the Bruce effect nor its adaptive significance have been tested
experimentally in the field. In a controlled field study, we exposed reproducing female gray-tailed voles (Microtus canicaudus) to treatments in which males were removed and replaced by either unfamiliar males or females, and found no significant differences
in intervals between parturitions, number of pregnancies, and juvenile recruitment among the treatment and control animals.
Thus, we conclude that neither the Bruce effect nor infanticide occurred differentially as a consequence of the treatments
in gray-tailed voles. Multimale mating to confuse paternity, and postpartum estrus resulting in simultaneous pregnancy and
lactation may deter infanticide and functionally negate any benefits of pregnancy disruption in gray-tailed voles and perhaps
other murid rodents with similar mating systems. In light of our results, we recommend field verification for other species
of murid rodents that exhibit the Bruce effect in the laboratory before the results are applied to evolutionary theory.
Received: 12 May 1998 / Accepted after revision: 6 September 1998 |
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Keywords: | Bruce effect Infanticide Microtus Pregnancy disruption Gray-tailed voles |
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