Male Siblings Inhibit Reproductive Activity in Female Pine Voles, Microtus pinetorum

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Abstract
Pine vole females paired in breeding cages with male siblings remain unreproductive beyond the age of puberty onset. Only 10% of females caged with their brothers reproduced; 85% of females placed with strange males had litters. Mating between a female and a strange male was also suppressed by the presence of a male sibling sequestered behind a wire mesh barrier in the breeding cage. When the sibling male was removed from the cage after 1 day, 78% of the females produced litters. When the sibling remained behind the barrier in the breeding cage, only 42% gave birth to young conceived in his presence. Conception of 2nd litters during the postpartum estrus occurred in over 80% of females caged with strange males alone and only 10% of females caged with sibling males. Female pine voles are induced to become reproductively active by strange males but this activity is depressed by the presence of a brother, and once initiated it does not continue if the female is caged with her brother.

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