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Young mice exposed to feline urine less likely to escape cats

"Early exposure to cat odour changes behavioral reactions to, but not physiological (hormonal) responses in the mice," researchers explained.

By Brooks Hays
Ilya is one of the cats that participated in the research. Photo by Vera Voznessenskaya/SEB
Ilya is one of the cats that participated in the research. Photo by Vera Voznessenskaya/SEB

PRAGUE, Czech Republic, July 3 (UPI) -- Young mice exposed to cat urine are less likely to escape feline hunters later in life.

When the smell of cat urine is normalized at a young age, mice are less likely to avoid the same smells later in life, and thus more likely to meet their demise in the grasp of feline claws.

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"Because the young mice (less than two weeks old) are being fed milk while being exposed to the odour, they experience positive reinforcement," Dr. Vera Voznessenskaya, a researcher at Russia's A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, said in a press release. "So they don't escape the cats when exposed to cat odour later on."

Researchers were able to identify the molecule in cat urine that affects the behavior. Previous research has shown the molecule, called L-Felinine, to influence mice reproduction -- thwarting a female's ability to get pregnant and shrinking litter sizes.

Perhaps most interestingly, researchers found the molecule manipulates the behavior response of mice, while their hormonal response remains the same.

"Early olfactory experience with cat odours produced dissociation in responses to these odours later in the life at the behavioral level and at the hormonal level," researchers explained.

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"In fact, mice that had experienced the odour showed stress response (elevated corticosterone) to cat odors in the same way as controls," Voznessenskaya added.

Voznessenskaya and her colleagues presented their findings this week at the Society for Experimental Biology 2015 meeting in Prague.

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