Aggression by a female rat cohabitating with a sterile male: termination of pseudopregnancy does not abolish aggression

Physiol Behav. 1991 Sep;50(3):519-23. doi: 10.1016/0031-9384(91)90539-z.

Abstract

At the end of that time, each female was assessed for aggressiveness toward an unfamiliar female intruder once each week for 3 weeks. Those females displaying a high level of aggression had their male cagemate changed. For half of the females, the new male cagemate was a castrated male with a testosterone implant. For the other half, the new cagemate was a castrated male without a testosterone implant. Replacement males had been subjected to surgery 9 weeks previously. There were no differences in the aggressiveness of females of the two groups on any of 3 subsequent weekly tests of aggression. In a 3-h evaluation of male sexual behavior, none of the 9 castrated males without testosterone replacement displayed sexual activity with an estrogen/progesterone primed ovariectomized female, but 6 of 9 males with testosterone replacement did. Reanalysis of the aggression data comparing the females whose males had no testosterone replacement and females housed with the 6 males that were sexually active also revealed no differences in aggression over the 21-day test period. Since pseudopregnancy is known to last 13 days, these results indicate that the continuous presence of pseudopregnancy is not required for maintenance of aggression by a female cohabiting with a sterile male.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aggression / drug effects
  • Aggression / psychology*
  • Animals
  • Drug Implants
  • Female
  • Infertility, Male / psychology*
  • Male
  • Orchiectomy
  • Piloerection / physiology
  • Pseudopregnancy / psychology*
  • Rats
  • Sexual Behavior, Animal / physiology
  • Testosterone / administration & dosage
  • Testosterone / pharmacology

Substances

  • Drug Implants
  • Testosterone