Food Deprivation Suppresses a Preference for the Top-Scent Mark of an Over-Mark in Meadow Voles (Microtus pennsyl- vanicus) Andrew A. Pierce, Ashlee A. Vaughn & Michael H. Ferkin Department of Biology, Univrsity of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA Introduction Animals display proceptive behavior to communicate their interest in interacting with the opposite sex. For most terrestrial mammals, scent marking and responses to scent marks are examples of proceptive behavior. For example, proceptivity may be expressed when individuals deposit more scent marks in areas marked by opposite-sex conspecifics than in those marked by same-sex conspecifics (Gos- ling & Roberts 2001) and by individuals responding selectively to odors produced by opposite-sex con- specifics compared with those produced by same- sex conspecifics (Johnston 1979; McClintock 2002). Typically, females that display proceptive behavior towards male conspecifics are receptive to them. Thus, proceptive behavior is critical to facilitating and coordinating sexual behavior (Beach 1976). Displays of proceptivity can be affected by envi- ronmental cues, such as food availability (Bronson 1989). For example, food-restricted female musk shrews (Suncus murinus) deposited fewer scent marks and tail wagged (the main proceptive behaviors for musk shrews) less often than ad lib-fed shrews (Gill & Rissman 1997; Temple et al. 2000). Re-feeding reinstated proceptive behavior in these animals (Temple et al. 2000). Likewise, male and female meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) that were Correspondence Andrew A. Pierce, Department of Biology, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, USA. E-mail: apierce@diabetes.ucsf.edu Received: May 9, 2006 Initial acceptance: June 15, 2006 Final acceptance: November 28, 2006 (S. K. Sakaluk) doi: 10.1111/j.1439-0310.2007.01338.x Abstract Food availability affects whether mammals communicate their interest in interacting with opposite-sex conspecifics. This study examined the responses of voles to over-marks, and factors that influence the forma- tion and maintenance of a preference for the top-scent in an over-mark. Specifically, we investigated how food deprivation affected the amount of time male and female voles exposed to an over-mark, later responded to the marks of the top- and bottom-scent donors when subsequently presented with the two scents side by side. Males and females that were not food deprived and males that were food deprived 6 h before expo- sure to an over-mark later maintained a preference for the donor of the top-scent mark compared with the donor of the bottom-scent mark of the over-mark. Females that were food deprived for 6 h before or after exposure of the over-mark and males food deprived 6 h after the expo- sure to the over-mark showed no preference for the top-scent mark donor. Re-feeding females that were food deprived for 6 h before expo- sure to an over-mark was sufficient to restore their preference for the mark of the top-scent male over that of the bottom-scent male. The dif- ferent responses of food-deprived male and female voles to over-marks of opposite-sex conspecifics may be associated with differences in their tactics for interacting with potential mates and the higher energetic costs of reproduction in female voles than in male voles. Ethology Ethology 113 (2007) 480–486 ª 2007 The Authors 480 Journal compilation ª 2007 Blackwell Verlag, Berlin