Social interactions within and between two distant populations of house mouse

A b s t ra c t. we studied agonistic behaviour of male and female house mice from two distant populations (Bohemia and Eastern Turkey) each belonging to a different subspecies (Mr.r ntusculus ntusculus and Mus ntusculus domesticus respectively). Two hundred dyadic interactions in a neutral cage were performed following a balanced design. The effects of sex, population, testing order, and their mutual interactions on the neutral cage behaviour were evaluated. In both populations, male-male interactions were more agonistic than the femalefemale ones. Males from Turkey (M. m. domesticus) were much more agonistic than M. musculus males from Bohemia (M. nt musculu.s). They exhibited considerably more agonistic interactions not only in male-male but also in male-female encounters. Moreover, males from Turkey were regularly the winncrs of both interpopulational and intersexual encounters. Interactions between mice of different populations showed that mice discriminated individuals from the other population as opponents or even sexual partners, however, females spent more time sniffing males belonging to their own population.