HORMONAL INDEPENDENCE OF COURTSHIP BEHAVIOR IN THE MALE GARTER SNAKE

被引:102
作者
CREWS, D
CAMAZINE, B
DIAMOND, M
MASON, R
TOKARZ, RR
GARSTKA, WR
机构
[1] UNIV TEXAS, INST REPROD BIOL, AUSTIN, TX 78712 USA
[2] UNIV TEXAS, DEPT ZOOL, AUSTIN, TX 78712 USA
[3] HARVARD UNIV, SCH MED, HST PROGRAM, BOSTON, MA 02115 USA
[4] UNIV MIAMI, DEPT BIOL, CORAL GABLES, FL 33124 USA
[5] UNIV ALABAMA, DEPT BIOL SCI, HUNTSVILLE, AL 35807 USA
关键词
D O I
10.1016/0018-506X(84)90048-5
中图分类号
B84 [心理学]; C [社会科学总论]; Q98 [人类学];
学科分类号
03 ; 0303 ; 030303 ; 04 ; 0402 ;
摘要
Garter snakes exhibit a dissociated reproductive tactic in which gonadal activity is minimal at the time of mating, increasing only after the breeding season has ended. Neither short-term nor long-term castration affects courtship behavior in adult male red-sided garter snakes (T. s. parietalis). So long as males have passed through a low-temperature dormancy period (hibernation), castration either shortly after emergence in the spring or before entering winter domancy in the fall does not prevent the display of intense courtship behavior on emergence. Males castrated during mating activity the previous spring prior to the annual testicular growth phase actively courted females on emergence from hibernation. Males adrenalectomized and castrated during low-temperature dormancy also courted females on emergence. Hypophysectomy during or before low-temperature dormancy did not prevent males from displaying high-intensity courtship behavior on emergence from hibernation. Other sides show that treatment with sex steroid hormones as well as by hypothalamic and pituitary hormones and a variety of neural and metabolic affectors also fails to elicit courtship behavior in noncourting males during the summer. Evidently causal mechanisms controlling courtship behavior in the red-sided garter snake are fundamentally different, at least at the physiological level, from those mechanisms are described for many laboratory and domesticated species.
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页码:29 / 41
页数:13
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