In Sickness And In Health: Mice And Mating

It is no surprise that female mice prefer healthy males, most humans are the same way, but a new study tested the belief that attractive males have better mating success than other males. Sarah Zala and Dustin Penn of the Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology at the Vetmeduni Vienna investigated whether females would also choose to mate with healthy over infected male if given a choice. In the laboratory and in large enclosures, the females were allowed to freely choose between two males, one healthy and another challenged with a mild infection, which they previously found to alter male odor.  read more

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