No evidence for kin protection in the expression of sickness behaviors in house mice.

ABSTRACT: When infected, animals change their behaviors in several ways, including by decreasing their activity, their food and water intake, and their interest in social interactions. These behavioral alterations are collectively called sickness behaviors and, for several decades, the main hypotheses put forward to explain this phenomenon were that engaging in sickness behaviors facilitated the fever response and improved the likelihood of host survival. However, a new hypothesis was recently proposed suggesting that engaging in sickness behaviors may serve to protect kin. We tested this kin protection hypothesis by combining a field and a laboratory experiment in house mice. In both experiments, we induced sickness behaviors by administration of a pro-inflammatory agent. In the field experiment, w

SUBMITTER: Lopes PC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6232183 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature