Filial Responsiveness to Olfactory Cues in the Laboratory Rat

Abstract

Publisher Summary Under the care of the mother, the young not only receive her physical protection and nurturance, but the pups and nest are marked with the caecal odor of their mother. This chapter describes the pup responses to olfactory cues, ontogeny of attraction in rat pups, weakening of the pheromonal bond, and the functional aspects of the pheromonal bond. It is proposed that the importance of an animal being surrounded by its own odor lies in its confidence value to the individual by marking the area as safe, and the onset of production of a rat's own odor may be particularly effective in increasing the familiarity of its immediate environment, and decreasing its inherent neophobic responses to the stimuli with which they are inundated. The development of the capacity to emit an individual odor may allow the weanling to engage in social responses necessary for the interactions with conspecifics. The maternal pheromone, while important for a specific period in the life of the young rat, is clearly only one of the stimuli that are involved in the growth and maturation of the pups. The first two weeks may find the maternal nest odors and her ventral odors as prepotent cues, only to be replaced in importance by the maternal pheromone, which in turn may be replaced by other cues. The timely changes in the behavior observed in developing rats indicate that they are not becoming more perfect adults, but are uniquely adapting to the problems at each point in maturation.