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
; 40(4): 408-18, 2002 May.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-12115297
ABSTRACT
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.
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Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Ovinos
/
Discriminação Psicológica
/
Individualidade
/
Aprendizagem
/
Comportamento Materno
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Dev Psychobiol
Ano de publicação:
2002
Tipo de documento:
Article