Article

The hormonal control of scent marking and precopulatory behavior in male gray short-tailed opossums (Monodelphis domestica).

Department of Psychiatry, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Jersey Medical School, Newark 07103.
Hormones and Behavior (impact factor: 3.87). 10/1989; 23(3):381-92. pp.381-92
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT Little is known about the hormonal control of behavior in marsupials. In the present study, the effects of castration and of testosterone or estradiol replacement therapy on scent marking and precopulatory behavior in male gray short-tailed oppossums (Monodelphis domestica) were examined. It was found that castration resulted in decreases in chest and flank/hip marking displayed by male gray opossums. Testosterone but not estradiol stimulated chest marking in castrates. Males treated with either estradiol or testosterone displayed more flank/hip marking than control males. Highest levels of female aggression toward males were seen when the males had received testosterone treatment. These findings are discussed with respect to similarities and differences between marsupials and eutherians in the neural metabolism of testosterone and the hormonal control of scent marking behavior.

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    Article: Scent marking by the male domestic rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is stimulated by an object's novelty and its specific visual or tactile characteristics.
    Kurt L Hoffman, D M Hernández Decasa, M E Beyer Ruiz, Gabriela González-Mariscal
    [show abstract] [hide abstract]
    ABSTRACT: "Chinning" is a stereotyped scent marking behavior of domestic rabbits, in which the animal rubs the underside of its chin against objects in order to deposit scent gland secretions. Although the long-term maintenance of chinning requires circulating gonadal steroids, little is known about the acute regulation of this behavior. To define specific environmental stimuli that engage the chinning motor pattern, male rabbits were placed into an open field arena containing markable objects ("standard" bricks, "tall" bricks, or polished onyx spheres), observed for 30 min, returned to the home cage for 5 min, and then placed in the open field arena for another 30 min. During the 5 min interim: (1) the location of the open field or the spatial orientation of the objects within it were changed, (2) the olfactory or (3) visual characteristics of the objects were changed; or (4) no changes were made. Chinning and ambulation habituated to each type of object across the first 30 min, and bricks elicited more chinning than polished onyx spheres. In the second 30 min test, chinning was re-stimulated only when the original objects were replaced by visually different ones that had preferred characteristics. Ambulatory behavior was increased by changing the location of the open field arena, while modifying the olfactory characteristics of the objects had no effect on chinning or ambulation. These results indicate that scent marking is stimulated by object novelty and by the visual and/or tactile characteristics of the objects being marked.
    Behavioural brain research 10/2009; 207(2):360-7. · 3.22 Impact Factor
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Keywords

behavior
 
castrates
 
castration
 
control males
 
decreases
 
estradiol replacement therapy
 
female aggression
 
Highest levels
 
hormonal control
 
male gray opossums
 
male gray short-tailed oppossums
 
Males
 
marsupials
 
Monodelphis domestica
 
neural metabolism
 
precopulatory behavior
 
similarities
 
testosterone
 
testosterone treatment
 

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