Organizational effects of testosterone on the number of mating partners and reproductive success in females of a social rodent

The timing of exposure to testosterone produces activational and organizational effects in vertebrates. In females, high serum testosterone levels, and the exposure to high testosterone levels during early development, are negatively associated with female fertility and attractiveness to males. We tested these hypotheses by examining associations between serum testosterone levels (an indirect index of activational effects), anogenital distance (AGD, a direct index of organizational effects), and the number of male mating partners attained by females, and the number of offspring weaned. We examined 525 wild degu (Octodon degus) females across an 11-year study. During the mating season, we found no association between female serum testosterone levels and AGD, the number of male mating partners, or with the number of offspring weaned. However, we found that the number of male mating partners was positively associated with the number of offspring weaned, suggesting that females obtain direc..., , , # Activational and organizational effects of testosterone on the number of mating partners and reproductive success in females of a social rodent

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5mkkwh7g6](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5mkkwh7g6)

## Description of the data and file structure

README: Data for: Activational and organizational effects of testosterone on the number of mating partners and reproductive success in females of a social rodent

Summary of dataset contents, contextualized in experimental procedures and results.

Data contained in this file corresponds to individual and social group data from a wild population of degus (*Octodon degus*). This file only includes data for adult females. Data corresponds to data from the mating season (austral winter), and nursing season (austral spring), during eleven years (2009-2019). Mating season data (sheet 1) includes 10 years (2010-2019), nursing season data (sheet 2) includes 11 years (2009-2019).

**File and variables**

To test the predic...