We’ll file this paper under “things I kind of wish I didn’t know”. Apparently, the Syrian hamster really likes to hang out in areas smeared with female hamster vaginal secretions. So, I guess these hamsters will be sniffing around their cage like, oh this smells like vagina! I’ll hang out here! Oh but that area has a much more vagina-like smell, maybe I should move over there?
In case you’re wondering, the paper also investigates whether testosterone mediates this behavior and it doesn’t. Good to know? I guess poor grad students are going to have to continue collecting hamster vagina juice and smearing it all over the place.
That’s science. I’ll just leave you with a picture of a hamster, so you can ponder what he’s thinking about right now.
neuroecology 