Display Settings:

Format

Send to:

Choose Destination
We are sorry, but NCBI web applications do not support your browser and may not function properly. More information
    Proc Biol Sci. 2012 Sep 22;279(1743):3749-55. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.0986. Epub 2012 Jun 20.

    Mother goats do not forget their kids' calls.

    Source

    Biological and Experimental Psychology Group, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK. e.briefer@qmul.ac.uk

    Abstract

    Parent-offspring recognition is crucial for offspring survival. At long distances, this recognition is mainly based on vocalizations. Because of maturation-related changes to the structure of vocalizations, parents have to learn successive call versions produced by their offspring throughout ontogeny in order to maintain recognition. However, because of the difficulties involved in following the same individuals over years, it is not clear how long this vocal memory persists. Here, we investigated long-term vocal recognition in goats. We tested responses of mothers to their kids' calls 7-13 months after weaning. We then compared mothers' responses to calls of their previous kids with their responses to the same calls at five weeks postpartum. Subjects tended to respond more to their own kids at five weeks postpartum than 11-17 months later, but displayed stronger responses to their previous kids than to familiar kids from other females. Acoustic analyses showed that it is unlikely that mothers were responding to their previous kids simply because they confounded them with the new kids they were currently nursing. Therefore, our results provide evidence for strong, long-term vocal memory capacity in goats. The persistence of offspring vocal recognition beyond weaning could have important roles in kin social relationships and inbreeding avoidance.

    PMID:
    22719031
    [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
    PMCID:
    PMC3415910
    [Available on 2013/9/22]

      Supplemental Content

      Icon for HighWire

      Save items

      Recent activity

      Your browsing activity is empty.

      Activity recording is turned off.

      Turn recording back on

      See more...
      Write to the Help Desk