Skip to main content
Fig. 5 | Frontiers in Zoology

Fig. 5

From: Asian house rats may facilitate their invasive success through suppressing brown rats in chronic interaction

Fig. 5

Experimental set up. In Experiment 1, from 22 adult male rats of each rat species aged from 14 to 18 weeks, 10 were paired with the other species and the others were paired with their own species as a control. All pairs of rats were housed in the same cage for 2 months, and partitioned by perforated galvanized iron sheets. In Experiment 2, one group (n = 8) was kept in a room with the other species, and the other group (n = 7) remained in a room with its own species as a control. Each rat room was 15 m2 and contained approximately 120 rats of the same species. Eight weeks later, body weight, attractiveness of urine, serum cortisol and testosterone, and hippocampal GR and BDNF expression were measured. The attractiveness of male urine was determined using a two-choice box, consisting of a plastic (start box) and two Plexiglas choice tubes (internal diameter, 7.5 cm; length, 50 cm). The choice tubes were symmetrically connected to the start box and each tube had a removable perforated galvanized iron sheet partition 5 cm away from the box to control rat access. An odorant presentation compartment partitioned by a perforated galvanized iron sheet from the other part of the tube was at the distal end of each 10 cm tube. We painted the male urine on a glass slide, and then placed the slide in the presentation compartment

Back to article page