Effect of Castration of Male Ring Doves upon Ovarian Activities of Females.

Abstract

Pairs of ring doves with previous breeding experience were placed in cages in which the male and female were separated by a glass plate. In 20 pairs, the male was intact; in 20 pairs, he had been castrated 5 weeks before the beginning of the experiment Castration suppressed all male courtship behavior. At autopsy after 7 days in the test cages, females kept with castrate males had significantly lighter median oviduct weights (1724.5 mg) than those kept with normal males (3044.5 mg), and significantly fewer of them had ovu-lated (2 vs. 13). Castration of the males had therefore reduced ovarian activity in the females in the absence of any contact stimuli between them.