Twenty-four-hour-old lambs rely more on maternal behavior than on the learning of individual characteristics to discriminate between their own and an alien mother.
Dev. Psychobiol.. 2002-04-17; 40(4): 408-418
DOI: 10.1002/dev.10041
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1. Dev Psychobiol. 2002 May;40(4):408-18.
Twenty-four-hour-old lambs rely more on maternal behavior than on the learning of
individual characteristics to discriminate between their own and an alien mother.
Terrazas A(1), Nowak R, Serafín N, Ferreira G, Lévy F, Poindron P.
Author information:
(1)Centro de Neurobiologia, UNAM, AP 1-141 Querétaro, 76001 QRO. México.
Lambs can discriminate their own mother from an alien dam on the first day of
life, suggesting the recognition of individual physical characteristics of the
mother. Alternatively, their choice may depend on behavioral differences existing
between the ewes because of their maternal selectivity. To clarify this, the
ability of 24-hr-old lambs to discriminate between their own and an alien mother,
that were either intact and accept only their own lamb at nursing (i.e.,
selective, n = 19) or anosmic, which nurse indiscriminately alien lambs as well
as their own (i.e., nonselective, n = 24), was assessed by a 5-min, two-choice
test. With intact dams, lambs spent significantly more time next to their own
mother whereas this was not so in the presence of anosmic dams. Furthermore, in
the intact group, the vocal activity by their own mother differed from that by
the alien dam while this was not so in anosmic ewes. We conclude that 24-hr-old
lambs rely more on the behavior of the ewes to select their dam than on their
individual physical characteristics.
Copyright 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
DOI: 10.1002/dev.10041
PMID: 12115297 [Indexed for MEDLINE]