Peden B F, Timberlake W
Department of Psychology, Indiana University, Bloomington 47405.
J Comp Psychol. 1990 Jun;104(2):122-30. doi: 10.1037/0735-7036.104.2.122.
Sprague-Dawley rats (Rattus norvegicus) were observed in a familiar environment. In Experiment 1 a leader entered a clean chamber, and an opposite-sex follower entered the chamber next. Both sexes began to flank mark after several sessions. Males flank marked more, and females locomoted more, but both sexes urine marked and investigated objects equally often. Leaders and followers did not differ on any measure. In Experiment 2 we measured floor marks more precisely and manipulated the number of objects and the presence of scent marks. Flank marking was more frequent in the presence of conspecific urine but did not vary with the number of objects or the sex of the rats. More objects elicited more investigating and urine marking and produced fewer floor marks but increased the number of marks in the central area in relation to the periphery. The results indicate that rats' flank marking is behaviorally distinct from urine marking and differentially affected by environmental variables.
在熟悉的环境中观察斯普拉格-道利大鼠（褐家鼠）。在实验1中，一只领头鼠进入一个干净的笼子，随后一只异性跟随鼠进入该笼子。经过几次试验后，两性都开始进行侧腹标记。雄性侧腹标记更多，雌性活动更多，但两性进行尿液标记和探究物体的频率相同。领头鼠和跟随鼠在任何测量指标上都没有差异。在实验2中，我们更精确地测量了地面标记，并控制了物体数量和气味标记的存在情况。在有同种尿液的情况下，侧腹标记更频繁，但不随物体数量或大鼠性别而变化。更多的物体引发了更多的探究和尿液标记，产生的地面标记更少，但相对于周边区域，中央区域的标记数量增加。结果表明，大鼠的侧腹标记在行为上与尿液标记不同，且受到环境变量的不同影响。
