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Article: Brain receptor shapes voles' family values. (wild rodents)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- July 4, 1992
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1992 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The sexual and parental behavior of a species of wild rodents called mountain voles makes Murphy Brown look like a model mother.
Mountain, or "montane," voles live in isolated burrows and avoid other voles except to mate-which they do often and indiscriminately. Female montane voles usually abandon their pups soon after birth, and male montane voles never even see their offspring. Not that the pups themselves seem to mind: When a montane vole pup is plucked from its nest, it neither calls for its mother nor experiences a surge in stress-related hormones.
Two behavioral neuroscientists have now uncovered a clue that could explain this lack of family ...