A presumptive sex pheromone in the hamster: Some behavioral effects.

Abstract

Notes that female hamster vaginal discharge (FHVD) contains a presumptive pheromone(s) that affects male hamsters in at least 2 ways. Alone it attracts investigatory interest, and if applied to an appropriate stimulus object, it facilitates copulatory behavior. The latter property was investigated by applying a fixed quantity of the discharge to a series of "surrogate females." The same 8 sexually experienced adult male Golden hamsters were used in 2 experiments; in Exp II a 9th S, experimentally naive, was added because of its sexual vigor. Results indicate that the patterning and vigor of the elicited behavior more closely resembled the normal stereotyped mating sequence as the features of the stimulus object more closely approached those of a receptive female hamster. The ability of FHVD to facilitate mating with an otherwise sexually uninteresting stimulus object was unchanged 2 wks after ovariectomy of the donor female. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)