The deer mouse, believed to be the most common mammal in North America, has a very different take on family values than its evolutionary sibling, the oldfield mouse.Oldfield mice are monogamous. Fathers groom their young, keep them warm and ensure they don’t wander far from the nest. The deer mouse prefers the swinging lifestyle when it comes to sexual partners. It’s not unusual for the pups in a single litter to come from four different fathers. As for the deer mouse dads, they’re downright negligent. Nothing, it seemed, could bring out the warm and fuzzy dad behavior.Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. Until now. Researchers at Columbia University investigating the two species of mice discovered what appears to be a crucial difference: Oldfield produce an adrenal cell not found in other mice. The cell makes a hormone, which, when injected into virgin deer mice of both sexes, spurred 17 percent – even males – to groom their young and keep them close to the nest.Alas, it had no effect when it came to the deer mouse’s preference for playing the field with multiple female partners.It didn’t make them want to spend more time with their mate, said Andrés Bendesky, one of the authors of a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature describing the research.By examining other species of mice, Bendesky and his team determined that the newly disc …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnThe deer mouse, believed to be the most common mammal in North America, has a very different take on family values than its evolutionary sibling, the oldfield mouse.Oldfield mice are monogamous. Fathers groom their young, keep them warm and ensure they don’t wander far from the nest. The deer mouse prefers the swinging lifestyle when it comes to sexual partners. It’s not unusual for the pups in a single litter to come from four different fathers. As for the deer mouse dads, they’re downright negligent. Nothing, it seemed, could bring out the warm and fuzzy dad behavior.Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. Until now. Researchers at Columbia University investigating the two species of mice discovered what appears to be a crucial difference: Oldfield produce an adrenal cell not found in other mice. The cell makes a hormone, which, when injected into virgin deer mice of both sexes, spurred 17 percent – even males – to groom their young and keep them close to the nest.Alas, it had no effect when it came to the deer mouse’s preference for playing the field with multiple female partners.It didn’t make them want to spend more time with their mate, said Andrés Bendesky, one of the authors of a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature describing the research.By examining other species of mice, Bendesky and his team determined that the newly disc …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
