SEASONAL INCIDENCE OF WOUNDS : MALES- 
240 TO 359 DAYS OF AGE 
MEDIAN OF 3-POINT CLASS INTERVAL 
NUMBER OF WOUNDS 
Figure 126. — The effect of season on the prevalence of 
wounds among mature male Norway rats. 
describe the end result which arose from the 
consistent aggression expressed toward these 
individuals: 
January 23, 1948. Snow on ground. Female 
sibs 17, 20, and 25, which are the socially lowest 
ranking rats in the pen, have been harboring in 
Box 9 for the past 3 days. This was one of the 
four most distant harborage boxes from the Food 
Pen. I do not know which member or members 
of this trio the described events pertained to. 
Trip No. 7 to Food Pen: Box 9 to Passage 1, through 
West Alley to Passage 8, which was blocked by 
another rat. Thence around to Passage 7, which 
was also blocked by a rat. There was no indication 
that either of these rats actively threatened this 
female. Rather it was a case of the female avoiding 
close association with another individual. From 
Passage 7 it proceeded toward the North Alley 
Burrow where it was attacked and chased a short 
distance. It then went into the East Alley where 
it rested for 10 minutes under a clump of small 
pine trees just in front of Passage 6. From here 
it went back to Box 9 through Passage 2 without 
making any further attempt to enter the Food Pen. 
Trip No. 2 to Food Pen: Box 9 to Passage 1, down 
Path 1 and through Passage 8 to food hopper. 
Here it paused for 20 seconds without eating. 
Although no other rats were in the Food Pen, it 
retreated under the platform of the activity recorder 
at Passage 8. A rat from the South Alley Burrow 
entered, smelled at the female under the platform, 
and as it emerged chased it across the Food Pen, 
and through Passage 2, from which the low-ranking 
female proceeded to and into Box 4. Trip No. 3 
to Food Pen: Box 4 to Passage 1, down Path 1 and 
through Passage 8 to food hopper. It paused here 
only momentarily, since there was another rat 
there, before going out through Passage 6 and 
around to the outside southeast corner of the 
Food Pen. Here it paused for 2 minutes before 
entering the Food Pen through Passage 5, and 
again went to the food hopper. The rat at the 
food hopper immediately chased it out through 
Passage 5. The rat doing the chasing stopped at 
Passage 5 ; while the low-ranking female proceeded 
back up Path 1, through Passage 1 and over into 
Box 3. 
In these trips the female or females traveled 665 
feet without ever obtaining any food, whereas a 
round trip of 200 feet would have sufficed to 
satisfy its temporary food needs, had the behavior 
of the rat permitted it to go to and remain at the 
food hopper. The above events included prac- 
tically all of the aboveground activity of all rats 
during the first 45 minutes of activity on this 
evening. During the next 35 minutes there was a 
marked increase of activity by all of the rats in 
the pen except the three low-ranking females 
living in Area I. On this date the rats were con- 
centrated in the North and South Alley Burrows, 
the burrow by Passage 3, and the burrow by the 
fence opposite Box 14. Despite this dispersion of 
places of living, and despite the fact that both 
high and intermedite levels in social rank were 
represented, none of these rats exhibited any 
hesitancy in going to the food hopper to eat, nor 
were there any antagonisms expressed upon 
encounters. 
F. The Syndrome of the Social Outcast. The three 
females discussed above were definitely social out- 
casts. Other individuals over the history of the 
colony fell into the same category. Certain charac- 
teristics of these individuals were sufficiently general 
to classify them into a syndrome. They were: 
1. Slow growth rate, and low adult weight. 
These animals which grew slowly had a more 
juvenile body length: body-weight ratio in 
comparison with faster growing individuals 
of the same age (see figs. 134 and 135). 
2. Marked tendency to reenter traps (see 
pp. 94 to 99). 
3. Were difficult to remove from traps. In 
contrast to most of the other rats which 
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