Hair today-gone tommorow

Below is a lift-off from an abstract from Behavioural Brain Research Journal, except of course for my enthusiastic cheering in blue.

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Group-housed laboratory mice are frequently found with their whiskers and facial hair removed. It has been proposed that dominant mice are responsible for barbering the hair of the recipient and early studies suggest that the hair is removed by nibbling.

In the present study, pairs of mice, composed of a barber and recipient, were separated to allow hair to regrow. The animals were then placed together in an observation box and their social behavior was videorecorded.

During grooming, one member of a mouse pair removed the vibrissae of the conspecific and did so by grasping individual whiskers with the incisors and plucking them out.

ouch ouch ouch

Although plucking appeared ‘painful’, recipients were passive in accepting barbering, and even pursued conspecifics for further grooming.

Pluck me baby one more time

Other measures indicated that barbers were heavier than recipients and brain weights were not different.

Like you need brains to do that

The results are discussed in relation to the hypothesis that barbering is an expression of social dominance, the origins of the barbering behavior, and the consequences of barbering on brain function.

Thats a post-doc option- Effect of barbering on brain function.

Reading this abstract I was reminded by the salon my sister goes to get her eyebrows plucked by a fat auntie....ummm ...why...