Ethanol consumption of rats in individual, group, and colonial housing conditions

Rats were housed in individual cages, in a group cage, or in a naturalistic colonial habitat, and given access to food, water, 10% ethanol, and 10% ethanol in a sweetened saline solution. Rats housed in the colony ingested significantly less total ethanol than either group or individually caged rats. When the flavored ethanol solution was removed, total ethanol intakes of all groups decreased and did not differ significantly. The data indicate that the stimuli of the colonial situation act to decrease ethanol intake when a palatable ethanol solution is available.