Testosterone pulses paired with a location induce a place preference to the nest of a monogamous mouse under field conditions
- Institute for the Environment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States
- Biology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, United States
- Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Canada
- Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States
Figures
Figure 1
Experimental design.
Paired male California mice (Peromyscus californicus) with and without pups were randomly assigned to receive three subcutaneous injections over five nights of either testosterone (T) or saline/control (C). After the third and last injection, we deployed the remote sensing equipment (automated radio telemetry, audio recording, and thermal imaging) to record individual behaviors for three consecutive nights. Data were collected from California mice at the Hastings Natural History Reserve in 2015. Created with https://biorender.com/.
Figure 2 with 2 supplements
Median and quantiles of proportion of time at the nest by treatment type (C or T).
(A) Proportion of time at the nest for males (T: n = 10 and C: n = 11). T-males spent 14% more time at the nest than C-males (GLMM Estimate 0.14 ± 0.05, p = 0.02). (B) Proportion of time at the nest for females (T: n = 14 and C: n = 9). T-females spent 15.8% less time at the nest than C-females (GLMM Estimate –0.16 ± 0.06, p = 0.02). A single dot represents the observations from one individual on a single night. For each individual, there are therefore three dots in the figure representing three nights (reflecting our GLMM analysis). There is no loss of statistical significance if data are analyzed with individual averages instead of repeated measures (see Appendix 1). Source data 1.
Figure 2—figure supplement 1
Median and quantiles of male time at the nest by treatment type and by presence of pups.
(A) C-male time at the nest with (n = 6) and without pups (n = 5). (B) T-male time at the nest with (n = 6) and without (n = 4) pups. T-males with pups spent 15% more time at the nest than C-male with pups, and T-males without pups spent 12% more time at the nest than C-males without pups (treatment GLMM Estimate 0.13 ± 0.03, p < 0.01; pups GLMM Estimate 0.21 ± 0.03, p < 0.01). A single dot represents the observations from one individual on a single night. For each individual there are therefore three dots in the figure representing three nights (reflecting our repeated measures GLMM analysis). There is no loss of statistical significance if data are analyzed with individual averages instead of repeated measures (see Appendix 1). Source data 1.
Figure 2—figure supplement 2
Median and quantiles of female time at the nest by male treatment type and by presence of pups.
(A) C-female time at the nest with (n = 6) and without pups (n = 3). (B) T-female time at the nest with (n = 6) and without pups (n = 8). There was a significant effect of pups on female time at the nest (GLMM Estimate 0.54 ± 0.24, p < 0.04), but there was no treatment effect (GLMM Estimate –0.05 ± 0.25, p = 0.84). C-females with pups spent 11.6% more time at the nest than C-females without pups. T-females with pups spent 19.4% more time at the nest than T-females without pups. A single dot represents the observations from one individual on a single night. For each individual there are therefore three dots representing three nights (reflecting our repeated measures GLMM analysis). There is no loss of statistical significance if data are analyzed with individual averages instead of repeated measures (see Appendix 1). Source data 1.
Figure 3
Median and quantiles of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) produced at the nest based on treatment and the three nights following the last injection.
(A) Pairs produced more total USVs at T-nests (n = 14 dyads) than C-nests (n = 12 dyads) (GLMM Estimate 0.87 ± 0.40, p = 0.04). (B and C) The number of total USVs produced by C-pairs and T-pairs decreased from night one to night three (GLMM Estimate –0.76 ± 0.26, p < 0.01). In figure (A) only, a single dot represents the observations from one pair on a single night. In figure (A), there are therefore three dots per pair representing each of the three nights (reflecting our repeated measures GLMM analysis). Figures (B) and (C) are broken down by treatment and by night and therefore each pair is represented by one dot per night. Source data 1.
Figure 4
There was a negative association between total ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) produced and time spent together as a dyad (F2,51=20.68, R2 = 0.12, p = 0.03).
There was, however, no treatment effect on the total USVs produced and time spent together as a dyad (F2,51 = 20.68, R2 = 0.12, p = 0.37). A single dot represents the observations from one dyad on a single night (T: n = 10, C: n = 8 dyads). There are therefore three dots per dyad representing each of the three nights (reflecting our repeated measures GLMM analysis). Source data 1.
Figure 5 with 1 supplement
Median and quantiles of call bandwidth (Hz) for male mice.
Bandwidth was measured in the first call in the sequence for 1, 2-, 3-, and 4SVs produced by males. T-males (n = 12) produced calls with a 11.25% smaller bandwidth than C-males (n = 6) (GLM Estimate –0.13 ± 0.01, p < 0.01). A single dot represents the average bandwidth value for an individual male. Source data 2.
Figure 5—figure supplement 1
PCA of the first call in the sequence for 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4SVs produced by males (T: n = 86 and C: n = 31).
All the frequency variables were correlated to one another and represented as a single PC1 variable. Source data 2.
Author response image 1
Time course for plasma T levels of individual male P.
californicus exposed to a female (no repeated measures). Xin Zhao and Catherine Marler, unpublished data. * p<0.05.
Videos
Video 1
Male California mouse at the nest.
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Video 1—source data 1
Male California mouse at the nest.
- https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/65820/elife-65820-video1-data1-v2.zip
Additional files
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Supplementary file 1
Male time at the nest.
- https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/65820/elife-65820-supp1-v2.docx
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Transparent reporting form
- https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/65820/elife-65820-transrepform1-v2.pdf
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Source data 1
Source data for male and female time at the nest.
- https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/65820/elife-65820-data1-v2.csv
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Source data 2
Source data for call production.
- https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/65820/elife-65820-data2-v2.csv
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Testosterone pulses paired with a location induce a place preference to the nest of a monogamous mouse under field conditions
eLife 11:e65820.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.65820
