Familiarity and female choice in the bank vole — do females prefer strangers? |
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Authors: | Michaŀ Kozakiewicz Agnieszka Choŀuj Anna Kozakiewicz Miŀosŀawa Sokóŀ |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Ecology, University of Warsaw, Banacha 2, 02-097, Warszawa, Poland 2. Mammal Research Institute, PAS, Waszkiewicza 1c, 17-230, Bia?owie?a, Poland
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Abstract: | A laboratory experiment was carried out in order to test the hypothesis that in a free-living population of bank volesMyodes glareolus Schreber, 1740, long distance movements and mating with females representing other breeding colonies may be a male strategy
to increase their reproductive success. In an experimental cage system, the behaviour of female bank voles towards males that
were either familiar to them or strangers was investigated, including whether or not females will accept stranger males as
breeding partners. It was found that females did not display increased aggression towards stranger males; instead they tried
to contact them and the level of female interaction did not differ significantly between the two categories of males. Based
on an analysis of microsatellite markers in the genomic DNA of adults and their young, the proportion of offspring fathered
by the stranger and familiar males was the same. In addition, a considerable proportion (40%) of double paternity litters
was found among those obtained during the course of the study. |
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