Territorial behavior of laboratory rats under conditions of peripheral anosmia

Two experiments investigated the influence of peripheral anosmia with zinc sulfate solution on aggressive and nonaggressive behaviors of rats in the colony intrusion paradigm. Experiment I was a replication of a previous observation that anosmic intruders arenot attacked by resident males. No significant differences were found in aggressive response to normal or anosmic intruders. Experiment II tested colony residents under normal and anosmic conditions for aggressive and nonaggressive response to intruders. The results were in agreement with previous reports that anosmia abolishes differential responding between males and females as well as all aggressive acts normally directed against unfamiliar males.