The regulation of infanticide and parental behavior: implications for reproductive success in male mice.
Infanticide has been proposed to be a pathological response to overcrowding or other forms of environmental stress and thus a maladaptive behavior. However, in male house mice this behavior is predictable and is modulated by learning. Committing infanticide can increase a male's reproductive success and in some situations may therefore be an adaptive behavior.
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004291:Dominance-Subordination; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D010332:Paternal Behavior; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*