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Estrous synchrony

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Estrous synchrony is the synchronization of the Estrous cycle amongst the female members of a species living in close proximity to one another. This phenomena in humans is known as menstrual synchrony but has been reported in other species including Norway rats,[1] hamsters,[2] chimpanzees,[3] and Golden lion tamarins.[4] In non-human primates, the term may also refer to the degree of overlap of menstrual or estrous cycles, which is the overlap of estrous or menses of two or more females in a group due, for example, to seasonal breeding.[5]

However, as with early human studies on menstrual synchrony, non-human estrous synchrony studies also were criticized for methodological problems.[6][7][8]

Subsequent studies failed to find estrous synchrony in rats,[9] hamsters,[10] chimpanzees,[11][12] and Golden lion tamarins.[13]

Rats Edit




The coupled-ocillator hypothesis was also investigated using a computer simulation model,[14] which was compared with data from McClintock's 1978 study.[1] They found that a coupled oscillator mechanism could produce estrous synchrony in female rats, but the effect was very weak.[14] The proposed mechanisms of this model were more precisely tested by controlling the airborne odors received by individual females.[17] They found support for the hypothesis that follicular phase odors short the length of estrous cycles, but they did not find that ovulatory phase odors lengthened cycles[17] as the earlier study by McClintock had found.[16]

Schank conducted another experiment to test whether female rats could synchronize their cycles.[6] He found that female rats did not synchronize their cycles and he argued that in the original McClintock study,[1] the random control group was more asynchronous than expected by chance. When the experimental group was compared to the control group in McClintock's 1978 study,[1] the experimental group was more synchronous than the control group but only because the control group was too asynchronous and not because the experimental group had synchronized their cycles. In a follow-up study, Schank again found not effect of estrous synchrony in rats.[9]







Golden lion tamarinsEdit




See alsoEdit


  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 (1978). Estrous synchrony and its mediation by Airborne chemical communication (Rattus norvegicus). Hormones and Behavior 10 (3): 264–75.
  2. 2.0 2.1 (1980). Social dominance determines estrous entrainment among female hamsters. Hormones and Behavior 14 (2): 107–15.
  3. 3.0 3.1 (1985). Synchrony of estrous swelling in captive group-living chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). International Journal of Primatology 6 (3): 335–50.
  4. 4.0 4.1 (1987). Synchronization of ovarian cycles within and between social groups in golden lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia). American Journal of Primatology 12 (4): 469–78.
  5. (2008). Female reproductive synchrony predicts skewed paternity across primates. Behavioral Ecology 19 (6): 1150–1158.
  6. 6.0 6.1 (2001). Do Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) synchronize their estrous cycles?. Physiology & Behavior 72.
  7. 7.0 7.1 (2000). Can Pseudo Entrainment Explain the Synchrony of Estrous Cycles among Golden Hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus)?. Hormones and Behavior 38 (2): 94–101.
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 (2001). Measurement and cycle variability: Reexamining the case for ovarian-cycle synchrony in primates. Behavioural Processes 56 (3): 131–146.
  9. 9.0 9.1 (2001). Oestrous and birth synchrony in Norway rats, Rattus norvegicus. Animal Behaviour 62 (3): 409–75.
  10. 10.0 10.1 (2002). Asynchrony in the Estrous Cycles of Golden Hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus). Hormones and Behavior 42 (1): 70–7.
  11. 11.0 11.1 (2005). Proximity and estrous synchrony in Mahale chimpanzees. American Journal of Primatology 66 (2): 159–66.
  12. 12.0 12.1 (2007). Estrus cycle asynchrony in wild female chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 61 (5): 661–8.
  13. 13.0 13.1 (1996). Natural and induced ovarian synchrony in golden lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia). Biology of Reproduction 55 (4): 875–82.
  14. 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 (1992). A coupled-oscillator model of ovarian-cycle synchrony among female rats. Journal of Theoretical Biology 157 (3): 317–62.
  15. (1981). Social Control of the Ovarian Cycle and the Function of Estrous Synchrony. Integrative and Comparative Biology 21: 243–56.
  16. 16.0 16.1 16.2 (1984). Estrous synchrony: Modulation of ovarian cycle length by female pheromones. Physiology & Behavior 32 (5): 701–5.
  17. 17.0 17.1 (1997). Ovulatory Pheromone Shortens Ovarian Cycles of Female Rats Living in Olfactory Isolation. Physiology & Behavior 62 (4): 899–904.
  18. (2011). Estrous asynchrony causes low birth rates in wild female chimpanzees. American Journal of Primatology 73 (2): 180–8.
  19. (2011). Do non-human primates synchronise their menstrual cycles? A test in mandrills. Psychoneuroendocrinology 36 (1): 51–9.

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