Social interactions within and between two distant populations of house mouse

We studied agonistic behaviour of male and female house mice from two dista nt populations (Bohemia and Eastern Turkey) each belonging to a different s ubspecies (Mus musculus musculus and Mus musculus domesticus respectively). Two hundred dyadic interactions in a neutral cage were performed following a balanced design. The effects of sex, population, testing order, and thei r mutual interactions on the neutral cage behaviour were evaluated. In both populations, male-male interactions were more agonistic than the female-fe male ones. Males from Turkey (M. m. domesticus) were much more agonistic th an M. musculus males from Bohemia (M. m musculus). They exhibited considera bly more agonistic interactions not only in male-male but also in male-fema le encounters. Moreover, males from Turkey were regularly the winners of bo th interpopulational and intersexual encounters. Interactions between mice of different populations showed that mice discriminated individuals from th e other population as opponents or even sexual partners, however, females s pent more time sniffing males belonging to their own population.