Abstract
Five experiments were conducted to test the performance of adult mandarin voles (Microtus mandarinus) in discriminating and preferring siblings versus nonsiblings raised in different conditions. The results indicate that adult males and estrous females displayed a significant preference for individuals raised by other parents over those raised by the same parent, regardless of genetic relatedness. The effect appears to depend on the presence of siblings during development. This shows that familiarity through association before weaning plays an important role in kin recognition. The preference of reproductively active mandarin voles for unfamiliar voles is interpreted as inbreeding avoidance. Although Wilcoxon's matched-pair tests showed no significant preferences of adult mandarin voles for siblings over nonsiblings raised by the same parents or by other parents, mean durations of visiting, mounting, and lying near nonsiblings were higher than those for siblings. This implies that genetic relatedness may have some effect on kin recognition, although familiarity is the main mechanism.
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