HOMEOSTATIC CONTROLS

I've been gathering new materials for my environmental science classes lately. I came across a study about behavioral, psychological, and social responses to overpopulation/overcrowding in animals. One particular study observed overcrowded rat populations. Here's what they found:

"When crowded, rats begin to exhibit abnormally hostile behavior, social interactions become pathological and fighting intensifies, often with fatal results to one of the combatants. Some individual males become hyperactive and hypersexual, attempting to mate with out customary courtship rituals and often mounting males, nonreceptive females, and juveniles indiscriminately. Pregnant females under crowded conditions frequently abort; if the young are born alive they are frequently killed by the mother or die as a consequence of neglect."