How Do Voles Fall In Love?

Journalist Christopher Mims wrote a piece for “Zoogoer,” a publication of the Smithsonian National Zoo about how prairie voles answer cupid’s call.
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/ZooGoer/2004/3/monogamy.cfm
Titled “Addicted to Love,” the piece shared how these rodents who resemble wild hamsters meet, mingle and mate for life in central North America.

A chance meeting of a male and female might go something like this:


Dude: “Hey, baby. You smell great. What is that? Lavender? Chamomile? Bath and Body Works Vanilla Spice?”

Chick: “Ooo. You know, you don’t smell so bad yourself. Come on over here and let me get a deeper whiff.”

With a life expectancy of about a year, prairie voles don’t have a lot of time for a long courtship. They inhale each other’s pheromones, secret scents produced by animals that overpower the senses and lead them to do crazy things like smell each other in unspeakable places. Before they know it, a prairie vole couple finds themselves mating, nesting, defending territory and birthing babies in less than a month’s time. At which point, a discussion deep in the underground vole den might go:

Husband vole: “What do you mean you spent $400 on a new sofa? We don’t need furniture! We’re prairie voles!”

Wife vole: “I knew I shouldn’t have married the first prairie vole to sniff my stuff! I’d go back home to mother if she hadn’t been eaten by a coyote!”

Scientists like to study creatures like prairie voles because they offer insight into human behavior and our own biological development. Because prairie voles are unique among their philandering rodent cousins as monogamous creatures, scientists sought to determine what makes them stay together.

According to current research, the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin play pivotal roles in maintaining prairie vole marriage. Susan Carter, a scientist at the University of Chicago reported, "Oxytocin is a hormone associated with emotional safety and security. It down-regulates stress hormones and encourages positive social behavior.”

While a release of oxytocin takes place in males and females in love, male voles also get a boost from vasopressin. Swimming in hormones, they mate for 24 consecutive hours after a brief wooing. Too tired to argue, the male vole agrees to meet her parents, buy a ring and set up housekeeping on the spot.

Scientists say that prairie voles have receptors in a part of the brain, the “nucleus accumbens,” that respond to oxytocin and vasopressin in a way that drives “social memory.” Their brains not only recognize that having a mate is a good thing, they establish that loving and sticking with a particular mate is a big reward. For the prairie vole, it’s not just any old Joe that will do. It’s that familiar scent, that knowing swagger unique to her prairie vole partner that makes wifey stick with the same guy. And maybe some open communication works, too.

Wife vole: “I sure do like what you did with the family room, Dennis. You have such a way with dirt!”

Husband vole: “Aw, it’s nothing. Just a bigger hole for my favorite prairie vole!”

Interestingly, although prairie voles do tend to stick with one mate to raise offspring, make their nests, and guard their home, they do stray. Maybe two holes away, a mother prairie vole will shelter a litter of pups fathered by two males. Maybe around the corner, behind that patch of brown-eyed Susans, a chance encounter with a delightfully aromatic female will result in Joe sharing more than a courteous “howdy-do.”

Then, they simply go back home to their original partner and live out their lives raising babies and avoiding predators like owls, snakes and divorce attorneys.

As I finished reading the article on prairie voles, I realized something about human behavior. We have a lot to learn from critters like that. Probably the most important lesson is that life is short, but we should always take time to stop and smell the roses of romance, and other things. Like our hearts and our “nucleus accumbens” tell us, true love is life’s greatest reward.