Mm. Clark et Bg. Galef, A testosterone-mediated trade-off between parental and sexual effort in male mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus), J COM PSYCH, 113(4), 1999, pp. 388-395
Effects of testosterone (T) on parental behavior of male Mongolian gerbils
(Meriones unguiculatus) were examined. After undergoing gonadectomy, castra
ted males were implanted with empty capsules or capsules containing T; sham
-operated males were implanted with empty Silastic capsules. Subsequently,
each male was paired with a pregnant female, and after delivery, families w
ere observed 15 min/day for 20 days. Gonadectomized males without T spent m
ore time in contact with, huddling over, and licking pups than did either s
ham-operated males or gonadectomized males with T. When given a choice betw
een nest sites and displaced pups, females and males with low T preferred p
ups, whereas intact males and castrated males with T preferred nest sites.
The findings are consistent with E. D. Ketterson and V. Nolan's (1994) hypo
thesis implicating T in mediating trade-offs between parental and sexual ef
fort.