Cornell University, Department of Psychology, Uris Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Zoology (Jena). 2012 Aug;115(4):270-4. doi: 10.1016/j.zool.2012.01.002. Epub 2012 Jun 1.
If a female mates with a male of a closely related species, her fitness is likely to decline. Consequently, females may develop behavioral mechanisms to avoid mating with heterospecific males. In some species, one such mechanism is for adult females to learn to discriminate against heterospecific males after exposure to such males. We have previously shown that adult, female Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) learn to discriminate against male Turkish hamsters (Mesocricetus brandti) after exposure to a single heterospecific male during 8 days across a wire-mesh barrier. Here we repeated that experiment but this time we exposed female Turkish hamsters to a male Syrian hamster for 8 days and then measured sexual and aggressive behaviors towards that heterospecific male and towards a conspecific male. In contrast to female Syrian hamsters, female Turkish hamsters did not differ in their latency to go into lordosis or in any measure of aggression towards either type of male. Female Turkish hamsters spent less time in lordosis with the heterospecific male, but the percentage of trials in which females copulated with conspecific and heterospecific males did not differ. When comparing females from both species that had been exposed to a heterospecific male for 8days, female Syrian hamsters copulated less and were more aggressive towards the heterospecific male compared to the behavior of female Turkish hamsters. We discuss how this asymmetric response between females of the two species may be due to the much larger geographical range of Turkish hamsters compared to Syrian hamsters.
如果雌性与亲缘关系密切的雄性物种交配，她的适应度可能会下降。因此，雌性可能会发展出行为机制来避免与异性雄性交配。在某些物种中，一种这样的机制是成年雌性在接触到异性雄性后学会识别它们。我们之前曾表明，成年雌性叙利亚仓鼠（Mesocricetus auratus）在通过铁丝网屏障与一只异性雄性接触 8 天后，学会了识别土耳其仓鼠（Mesocricetus brandti）雄性。在这里，我们重复了那个实验，但这次我们让雌性土耳其仓鼠与雄性叙利亚仓鼠接触 8 天，然后测量它们对那个异性雄性和同种雄性的性行为和攻击行为。与叙利亚仓鼠不同的是，雌性土耳其仓鼠在进入后肢伸展姿势的潜伏期或对任何一种雄性的攻击行为方面没有差异。雌性土耳其仓鼠与异性雄性接触的时间较少，但与同性和异性雄性交配的试验次数百分比没有差异。当比较两种物种中那些已经与异性雄性接触 8 天的雌性时，与雌性土耳其仓鼠相比，雌性叙利亚仓鼠与异性雄性交配的次数较少，攻击性更强。我们讨论了这两个物种之间的雌性不对称反应可能是由于土耳其仓鼠的地理范围比叙利亚仓鼠大得多。
