HOW DO you bring out the man in a male mouse? Give him a whiff of a female,
say researchers in Canada. Martin Kavaliers of the University of Western Ontario
and his team have found that the scent of sexually receptive female mice
emboldens the males, making them less fearful of the scent of predators such as
cats and weasels.
Male mice that smelt the female scent for a minute showed less aversion to
cat scent and produced lower levels of stress hormones and more testosterone
(Hormones and Behavior, vol 40, p 497). Kavaliers thinks this prompts
otherwise faint-hearted Romeos to risk danger rather than lose the opportunity
to mate. But the effect on males wore off after an hour of exposure to female
scent鈥攑erhaps they can afford to wait if they know a female will be around
for longer.