ABS 2023
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Female mice find males from well-resourced housing attractive: Implications for conservation captive breeding
Prathipa Anandarajan1, Jiayi Cai2, Georgia Mason1. 1Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada; 2Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

In species where females show mate choice, stressed males are often sexually unattractive. Stress is common in sub-optimally housed animals. The unattractiveness of stressed males could therefore help explain the poor reproductive performance in captive breeding programmes. We tested the hypotheses that housing quality predicts male attractiveness, using mice as models. In a T-maze mate choice test, 12 oestrous virgin females were each presented with 2 differentially-raised brothers, one from a conventional barren cage and one from a well-resourced ‘enriched’ cage. Trials were run, and videos analysed, blind to male housing. Well-resourced males were more attractive (time spent in T-maze arm: F(1,20) = 12.653, p = 0.002; time spent sniffing/interacting: F(1,20) = 20.290, p = 0.002). Ultrasonic recording confirmed that female interest was sexual: all trials involved courtship singing. Ongoing research is now assessing pregnancy success in mated pairs and exploring which housing-sensitive traits predict male attractiveness. Understanding how housing impacts male attractiveness could thus help improve management and reproductive success in captive conservation breeding programmes.�