Mating-induced inhibition of receptivity in the female golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus): III. Stimuli mediating long-term effects.

In the golden hamster, mating with an intact male results in both a reduction in receptivity shown toward a second male (short-term effect) as well as an absolute abbreviation of the receptive period (long-term effect). The present study examined the components of the mating situation responsible for the long-term effect. In experiment 1 we showed that the paradigm used to determine receptivity (i.e., brief hourly exposures to an intact male) did not affect the duration of receptivity whereas an ad lib mating early during the receptive period resulted in a 40% reduction in the length of behavioral estrus. In experiment 2 females received various types of mating stimuli, e.g., mounts from an apronned male, intromissions from a vasectomized male, a simulated copulatory plug, manually-induced lordosis, or several of these stimuli in combination. Only intromissions from an intact or vasectomized male significantly reduced the duration of behavioral estrus. Although as few as 10 intromissions from a vasectomized male were effective in significantly shortening the receptive period, higher levels of vaginocervical stimulation from a single male (experiment 3) or from additional males (experiment 4) effected significantly greater reductions in the length of behavioral estrus. Our results further demonstrated that only those females that subsequently became pseudopregnant showed significant abbreviations of behavioral estrus. The association of these two phenomena is of obvious adaptive value since it provides a mechanism to terminate a behavior once its function has been achieved.