Choosing an appropriate organism to answer specific scientific questions has been a valued approach in the hormones and behavior community for many decades. Indeed, scientists have not limited themselves to using only domesticated, laboratory rats and mice for experiments. To understand mechanisms underlying pairbonding, researchers began studying prairie voles (Young et al., 2011) and zebra finches (Adkins-Regan et al., 1997). To determine whether paternal care is modulated in similar or different ways than maternal care, researchers moved beyond studies of laboratory rats, and examined paternal behavior in species that evolved biparental care systems, such as prairie voles (Wang et al., 1994; Duclot et al., 2022), African striped mice (Rogers et al., 2023), and deer mice (Khadraoui et al., 2022). Striving to maintain ethological-relevance in experimental design can help us understand how species respond to varying environmental pressures, ultimately providing insight into how variation in social behavior arises.

While we know a fair amount about hormonal and neural mechanisms underlying flocking in birds (Goodson et al., 2012; Stevenson et al., 2020), and a few recent studies have begun to examine the neural mechanisms underlying grouping behavior in fish and insects (Tang et al., 2020; Messina et al., 2022; Homberg and Pfeiffer, 2023), we know surprisingly little about how the brain modulates mammalian grouping behavior. This deficit is likely due to issues concerning the feasibility of housing large groups of mammals in a lab. Unfortunately, we cannot bring elephants and wildebeests into the lab for invasive studies. However, there are small mammals that evolved to live in groups and are amenable to lab settings. Researchers have been studying peer relationships in meadow voles, which aggregate in groups in the winter, with females forming multiple attachments to same-sex conspecifics that are both kin and non-kin (Beery et al., 2009). Naked mole-rats are used for examining neuroendocrine regulation of pubertal suppression in colonies (Peragine et al., 2017; Faykoo-Martinez et al., 2021), as well as cultural transmission of vocal dialect in groups (Barker et al., 2021). Further, studies in vampire bats are exploring how the brain represents individuals within groups (Rose et al., 2021). To expand upon the mammalian organisms available for studies examining mechanisms of grouping behavior, we began studying the spiny mouse (Acomys cahirinus) – a highly gregarious rodent that can be readily bred and maintained in the lab. In this brief communication we describe how the spiny mouse can serve as a useful model for a variety of studies examining hormones, behavior, and the brain.