THE ASSOCIATION OF THE BLACK (non-agouti) GENE WITH BEHAVIOR

Abstract

Two holding tests, four emergence tests, and an annoyance text give similar results indicating the greater wildness and savageness of animals bearing a gray coat compared with those having a black coat in a population of 125 segregates of crosses of tame albino (carrying black) with wild gray Norway. It is likely that pleiotropy accounts for this association between coat color and temperament. Comparison of the annoyance test with a holding test shows the most annoyed and the most undisturbed rats in each test to be largely the same individuals, as would be expected, if the basis of wildness and savageness remains relatively constant in the individual under different situations. A garlic test suggests differences between gray and black segregates in the sense of smell. It also suggests that the albino gene has a profound dulling effect upon that sense.