Welfare of encaged rodents: species specific behavioral reaction of voles to new enrichment items
The enrichment of the environment of captive animals is one of the methods applied to reduce stress of the animals and to assure their proper welfare. However, placing objects in a limited space of a cage does not always have to stimulate positive responses. We conducted an experiment to investigate how universal the reaction of […]
Social novelty increases tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity in the extended olfactory amygdala of female prairie voles
The monogamous social behaviors of prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) require olfactory inputs, which are processed by the posterodorsal medial amygdala (MeApd) and principal bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (pBST). The male prairie vole MeApd and pBST contain hundreds of cells densely immunoreactive for tyrosine hydroxylase (TH-ir). Female prairie voles have relatively few of these […]