Department of Psychology, Saint Joseph's University, 5600 City Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19131, USA.
Department of Psychology, Saint Joseph's University, 5600 City Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19131, USA.
Behav Processes. 2021 Jul;188:104415. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2021.104415. Epub 2021 May 1.
The strictly monogamous California mouse (Peromyscus californicus) forms life-long pair bonds and mates exclusively with a single partner. While studies in the wild indicate that individuals may re-pair with a new partner following mate loss, the preponderance of this behavior and subsequent reproductive outcomes following re-pairing are understudied. To examine reproductive outcomes following re-pairing and to look for sex-specific differences following mate loss, birth records of 584 California mouse pairs from our laboratory were analyzed. Of these pairs, 59 pairs were identified as re-pairs and used for further descriptive analysis. We found that 50/59 (84.7 %) of re-paired animals gave birth, indicating that reproduction with a new mate is not only possible, but perhaps more common than previously described for this species. Additionally, we found that when re-paired, females took significantly longer to birth a subsequent litter as compared to original breeding pairs. Overall findings from the current study provide evidence for sex differences in reproductive outcomes following repairing and for greater flexibility in mating strategy for a species described as strictly monogamous.
严格的单配制加利福尼亚鼠（Peromyscus californicus）形成终生的配对关系，并且只与一个单一的伴侣交配。虽然野外研究表明，个体在失去伴侣后可能会与新伴侣重新配对，但这种行为的盛行程度以及重新配对后的后续繁殖结果仍未得到充分研究。为了研究重新配对后的繁殖结果，并寻找失去伴侣后雌雄个体的差异，我们分析了来自实验室的 584 对加利福尼亚鼠的出生记录。在这些配对中，有 59 对被确定为重新配对，并用于进一步的描述性分析。我们发现，50/59（84.7%）的重新配对动物成功生育，这表明与新伴侣繁殖不仅是可能的，而且可能比以前描述的这种物种更为常见。此外，我们发现，与原始繁殖对相比，重新配对的雌性生育下一窝后代的时间明显更长。本研究的总体结果为重新配对后繁殖结果的性别差异以及在被描述为严格单配制的物种中交配策略具有更大的灵活性提供了证据。
