Do newborn domestic rabbits Oryctolagus cuniculus compete for thermally advantageous positions in the litter huddle?
Por:
Bautista A., García-Torres E., Martínez-Gómez M., Hudson R.
Publicada:
1 ene 2008
Resumen:
Competition among mammalian siblings for scarce resources can be severe. Whereas research to date has focused on competition for the mother's milk, the young of many ( particularly altricial) species might also be expected to compete for thermally favorable positions within the nest, den, or litter huddle. We investigated this in newborn pups of the European rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus, a species in which the altricial young are not brooded by the mother, and in which competition for milk is severe. In eight unculled litters (N=86 pups) of a domestic chinchilla strain, we calculated huddling indexes for individual pups on postnatal days 2-5 as a measure of the degree of insulation they received from littermates. Pups maintained almost constant physical contact with the litter huddle. They performed brief but frequent rooting and climbing behaviors, which usually improved their huddling index, interspersed with longer periods of quiescence during which their huddling index declined. As
Filiaciones:
Bautista A.:
Centro Tlaxcala de Biología de la Conducta, Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala, Mexico
García-Torres E.:
Centro Tlaxcala de Biología de la Conducta, Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala, Mexico
Martínez-Gómez M.:
Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Ctr Tlaxcala Biol Conducta, Tlaxcala, Mexico
Hudson R.:
Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Inst Invest Biomed, Mexico City 04510, DF, Mexico
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