Effects of housing on male and female rats: Crowding stresses males but calms females
Abstract
Housing conditions affect behavioral and biological responses of animals. Effects of same-sex grouped, crowded, or individually housed conditions on plasma corticosterone levels of male and female Wistar rats were examined in two experiments. Experiment 1 examined the effects of individual vs. crowded housing conditions on corticosterone, a biochemical index of stress, in seven male and seven female rats. Experiment 2 extended the findings of Experiment 1 by separately manipulating spatial and population aspects of housing with 50 male and 50 female rats. Male rats had higher corticosterone levels under crowded conditions. In contrast, female rats had higher levels when individually housed. Spatial crowding was the key variable for males, whereas the number of other animals was more important for females. These results indicate that investigators must consider housing conditions as an intervening variable that is likely to differentially affect behaviors of male and female rats.
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Evidence suggests that females respond to housing conditions differently than males.
“Evidence suggests that females respond to housing conditions differently than males.6”
From Ultrasonic Vocalization Analysis as a Novel Metric to Assess Cage Enrichment in Rats (2022) · cites this paper as [6]
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Ultrasonic Vocalization Analysis as a Novel Metric to Assess Cage Enrichment in Rats
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- Authors
- BROWN, K.
- Affiliations
- Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (US)
- Corresponding author
- BROWN, K
- Venue
- Physiology & Behavior
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1995-12
- Volume
- 58
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1085-1089
- ISSN
- 0031-9384 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1991410461
- Cited by
- 275
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 2.17
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Physiology & Behavior (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Keywords
- housing conditions, crowding, stress, corticosterone, sex differences, individual housing, spatial crowding, population density, rats
- MeSH terms
- Analysis of Variance, Animals, Behavior, Animal, Corticosterone, Female, Housing, Animal, Male, Sex Characteristics, Stress, Psychological, Rats, Wistar, Rats
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