The influence of neonatal androgenization on behavioural receptivity was tested by treating female voles on the 3rd day of life with testosterone propionate or with the oil vehicle. After treatment in adulthood with urine or with oestradiol benzoate, androgenized voles were less likely than normal females to display behavioural oestrus and were more likely to engage in agonistic behaviour in te...

The homologous neuropeptides vasotocin (VT) and vasopressin (VP) influence agonistic behaviours across many taxa, but peptide-behaviour relationships are complex and purportedly species-specific. Putative species-specific effects in songbirds are confounded with context, however, such that territorial species have been tested only in resident-intruder paradigms and gregarious species have been ...

Diverse physiological and behavioural mechanisms allow animals to effectively deal with stressors, but chronic activation of the stress axis can have severe consequences. We explored the effects of chronic social stress on agonistic behaviour and gall bladder function, a critical but widely neglected component of stress-induced gastrointestinal dysfunction. Prolonged cohabitation with dominant ...

Rates of amicable and agonistic behaviour are not correlated either within or between two colonies of Marmota flaviventris nor is there any consistent pattern of rates being higher in one colony than in the other . Rates of social behaviour are related to population density, the age-sex structure of the population, the individual behavioural characteristics of the residents and potential recrui...

Aggressive and submissive behaviours are commonly assumed to represent two extremes of a single personality trait, often labelled ‘aggressiveness’. However, most studies focus exclusively on behaviour elicited by conspecific aggression, rates at which aggressive expressed, without considering either unprovoked behaviour, or the intensity actions themselves. Utilizing long-term data set spanning...

background: the organochlorine ddt has estrogenic activity but the mechanism underlying the estrogenic activity of this pesticide remains unclear. in the present investigation here, we studied the transcriptional effects of a synthetic organochlorine pesticide o,p’-ddt [1.1.1.-trichloro-2-(o-chlorophenyl)-2-p-chloriphenyl ethane] and its metabolite p,p'-dde (2-2-bis(4/chlorophenyl)-1-1-dic...

mGlu5 receptors are highly concentrated in limbic brain structures involved in motivational and emotional behaviours. This study describes the effects of 2-methyl-6-(phenylethylnyl)pyridine (MPEP; 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 mg/kg, ip), a selective antagonist of the mGlu5 receptors, on agonistic behaviour elicited by isolation in male mice. Individually housed mice were exposed to anosmic opponents in...

Abstract Neighbour-stranger discrimination is an important mechanism in social behaviour, as it allows the individual to avoid high energetic costs of repeated agonistic interactions with neighbours. In some anuran species, owners territories respond more aggressively towards strangers than Here, we investigated whether gladiator frog, Boana goiana , males discriminate between neighbours and st...