Intraspecific sexual preferences of female hamsters.

Abstract

The sexual preference behavior of estrous females of 3 spp. of hamsters of the genus Mesocricetus was studied by introducing individual females into an arena with a pair of males from 2 different species. When 1 male of the pair was a conspecific, females of all 3 spp. spent significantly more time investigating the conspecific male. When neither male was a conspecific, female Turkish hamsters (M. brandti) strongly preferred male Romanian hamsters (M. neutoni) to male Syrian hamsters (M. auratus), and female Romanian hamsters preferred male Turkish hamsters to male Syrian hamsters. Female Turkish hamsters displayed significantly more presentation behavior than did Romanian females, and Syrian females rarely presented. Female Turkish hamsters also displayed a stronger degree of preference behavior to a conspecific male than did females of either of the other species. The relatively stronger sexual preferences and greater amount of presentation displayed by Turkish hamsters may relate to the greater opportunity for sympatry with closely related forms and the polymorphic state of this species in the wild. The similarity of Turkish and Romanian hamsters on several characteristics may explain the preference of these species for each other when the alternative was a Syrian hamster.