title: Nest-box exploration and choice in male and female mice tested under individual and social conditions.
abstract: Nest-box exploration and the choice of nest site were studied in the laboratory mouse (Mus musculus L.) using a long-term successive choice procedure involving six simultaneously available nest-boxes differing in size and shape. The subjects of the experiments were male and female individuals tested both singly and with their same-sex cagemates. The subjects were reared since birth in circular cages instead of the standard rectangular ones used in previous experiments. The preferences shown by circular-cage reared males in establishing their nest tended to be shape-linked, the rectangular being preferred to the square and circular nest-boxes of both sizes tested. Individuals used shape as the main choice criterion, whereas litters more often took smallness of size into account. The animals' choice of nest-box does not seem to be particularly gender-dependent, since no significant differences between the sexes were found in this respect. The order and number of visits recorded during the initial exploratory phase (the first 30 min) of the choice process indicated that size was the most frequent feature of the nest-boxes to be taken into account, which could simply be explained by the fact that larger nest-boxes are more likely to be encountered than small ones. On the other hand, the animals tested as a group explored the nest-boxes much more than those tested individually. The discussion deals mainly with gender-related and social spatial behaviours in rodents.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Neurosciences Fonctionnelles C.N.R.S., L.N.F. Ul bis 31, Chemin Joseph-Aiguier, 13402 Marseille Cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Buhot