AGGRESSIVE-BEHAVIOR OF THE DOMESTICATED HOUSE MUSK SHREW (SUNCUS-MURINUS) IN INTERMALE, INTERFEMALE AND HETEROSEXED INTERACTIONS

A pair of the house musk shrews (Suncus murinus) was placed in an observation box and their interactive behavior was analyzed. The animals often engaged in alarm vocalization, tail biting, and body biting and wrestling, respectively, for the inter-male, inter-female and male-female pairs. Thus, for this species, the interactions were found to be basically aggressive. An analysis of the behavioral sequences suggested that the males have more diverse behavioral responses to other males than do the females. Males smaller in weight approached and escaped more frequently than the larger ones, whereas the weight had no effect on the female pairs. Inter-male interactions consisted mainly of approach (facing) and escape, inter-female interactions included alarm vocalization in addition to the inter-male behavioral patterns, and the main form of male-female interaction was the male's chasing the female.