Female tactile cues maximize paternal behavior in prairie voles

Most monogamous male mammals display parental care, but the mechanism by which they become motivated to care for infants remains unknown. We used prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) as a model of biparental species to test the hypothesis that physical contact with a female enhances male parental responsiveness before the birth of offspring. We tested four groups of males: mated with physical contact with their mate, mated with only distal cues from their mate, mated with no cues, and unmated with distal cues from a female. The subjects were placed in an oversized cage divided into two compartments by a perforated barrier. At mid-gestation, the bedding and females were removed, and the males’ responses toward two infants were videotaped. Although most males behaved parentally, mated males exposed to their mate’s tactile or distal cues approached the young faster and were more likely to care for both infants than unmated males which received female distal cues. Males who had physical contact with their mate showed “kyphosis” (a crouching position over infants) and contacted infants more frequently than mated males which received no cues from their mate or unmated males which received female distal cues. Furthermore, the frequency of non-social behaviors was lowest in mated males that had physical contact with their mate. The data suggest that exposure to female distal cues after mating is sufficient to increase male parental attentiveness, but female somatosensory cues affect the male's tendency to remain in physical contact with infants.