Abstract: A wealthy of scientific data supports the substantial role played by social odor in mediation of rodents’social life; however, little efforts has been made to examine whether visual signals have similar roles in rodents’social life This experiment was designed to test if exclusively visual signals from a strange male impose stress on a pregnant female and impact her reproductive characteristics. In this experiment,one male golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) caged in an airproof and transparent glass box was put into a pregnant female’s cage till the female gave birth. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the body weight changes between those two groups of females during the two periods: mating to parturition and parturition to weaning. Nor did we find any significant differences in the pups’body weight gaining, litter size, visual development, survival rates and sex ratios.However, we did find significant differences in reproductive success between those two groups of females:one third of those exposed to male stranger either aborted or died birthing; control had normal birth pattern. The hypothesis of visual signals from a strange male hamster may impose stress on pregnant female hamster was partially supported by our current data. Our results indicate that while visual signals from strange male conspecifics might impact the pregnant females’reproductive success,and there is no extended impact on the
female’s body weight gain and offspring physiological development. This information should help to inform animal management and treatment procedures in handling lab animals such as rat and mouse in addition to golden hamster.

Key words: Golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus), Offspring, Pregnant, Stress, Social visual stimulus

摘要： 以往对化学通讯在啮齿类社群生活中的作用开展了很多研究,而对视觉信号的作用则很少涉及。本文借助一个特殊设计的透明密封玻璃缸,研究怀孕雌性金仓鼠是否对陌生雄鼠的视觉信号刺激产生应激反应。结果发现实验组和对照组雌鼠在交配后至分娩、分娩至断乳期的体重变化、产仔数量、幼鼠体重变化、睁眼时间、存活率和性比等均未表现显著性差异,而实验组雌鼠正常分娩率显著低于对照组。怀孕雌鼠对陌生雄鼠单一视觉刺激信号产生应激反应的假设得到部分支持。我们的结果表明,陌生雄鼠的视觉信号刺激影响了怀孕雌鼠的繁殖,但该影响并未延伸到分娩后和后代的生长发育。

关键词: 金色中仓鼠, 应激, 视觉刺激, 孕期, 后代