Figure 3. Scoring of contact behavior.

A depiction of the system used for scoring contact behavior, adapted from that employed by Sokoloff and Blumberg [28]. Each pup in the litter was scored each minute for how many males (blue pups) and females (pink pups) they were in contact with, excluding contacts via tails and outstretched paws. Each combination of contacts was assigned a unique identifier or “contactogon”. For example, 0 M 2 F designates contact with zero males and two females. Contactogons possible for only a single sex (e.g., 3 M 0 F) are not shown, and were collapsed into a single category for the purposes of statistical analysis.