prairie vole

In addition to increases in gregarious behaviors seen in both sexes, prairie voles exposed to additional oxytocin showed lasting (epigenetic) changes in the gene for the oxytocin receptor and increases in oxytocin receptors in areas of the brain implicated in sociality, especially in males.

Vegetation associated with prairie vole nests differed from that at randomly selected sites although the specific vegetation traits that predicted nest sites varied across sampling periods.

Female prairie voles do not choose males based on their frequency of scent marking.

In the experiment, prairie voles who were relatives were temporarily separated while one was exposed to mild electric shocks.

In temperate climates, greater losses were measured during drought conditions for male but not female North American deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus; Kaufman and Kaufman, 1994) and with extremes in temperature for deer mice (Kaufman and Kaufman, 1994), hispid cotton rats (Sigmodon hispidus), and prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster; Slade, 1991).

The most abundant small mammal at Goose Pond is clearly the prairie vole, Microtus ochrogaster.

What is even stranger is that a very close relative of the prairie vole does just the opposite.

Prairie voles are changing how scientists think about the brain's role in "falling in love." When a female prairie vole meets a male, it is no ordinary first date.

Small mammal capture frequencies varied during the 2 sampling periods; seroprevalence for pocket mice, prairie voles, and harvest mice increased, and that for meadow voles (M.

Insel and Winslow studied two species of North American rodents that are closely related but have radically different social organization: the prairie vole, which is monogamous with strong male-female pair bonding and both parents involved in care of young, and the montane vole, which is promiscuous with fathers uninvolved with young.

Scientists in the US studying the monogamous prairie vole found males had receptors for vasopressin, but their non-monogamous cousins did not.

Scientists discovered its unusual role by studying the prairie vole, which before mating is friendly to male and female voles alike.

Lin and Batzli (4) supported this view by concluding that snakes have a lower impact on prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) populations than do large mammalian carnivores.

Prairie vole density and distribution.--Mean prairie vole density was influenced by successional phase, block size, and season (Fig.