The influence of pup odour on the nest related behaviour of rabbit does ( Oryctolagus cuniculus)

Abstract

Under natural and near-to-nature conditions, rabbit does block the entrance to their nest after nursing by burrowing before they leave. This behavioural pattern serves to protect the pups from predators and is a highly evolutionary adaptive behaviours. Under commercial husbandry conditions, the entrance to the nest box stays permanently open, potentially counteracting a doe's behavioural goal of a closed nest. Due to the non-manipulable floor and the absence of roughage or other appropriate materials, a doe will fail to achieve the feedback of a successful removal of nest stimuli, in spite of conducting the appropriate behavioural patterns. This leads to repeated nest contacts, nest visits and nest closing attempts and can increase pup mortality due to the crushing of pups and the disturbance of their energy-saving strategy of resting deep inside the insulating nest material between nursing visits. Previous studies have shown that repeated nest related behaviour is even performed when the nest entrance is closed with a sliding door and opened once a day for nursing. This may be due to the ventilation openings in the nest box, potentially emitting olfactory and acoustic stimuli. To investigate the effects of the olfactory stimulus alone, we provided the cages of 15 ZIKA does with nest boxes which contained no pups and emitted no pup odours (‘N’), and compared the does’ nest related behaviour and general activity when nest boxes were attached which also contained no pups, but potentially emitted pup odour (‘O’). Thus, each doe was both a test and control animal. In both treatments the nest entrance was closed with a sliding door and nursing allowed once a day. The frequency and duration of nest contacts were significantly higher in ‘O’ than in ‘N’. Furthermore, significantly more nesting activities were performed after and outside nursing in ‘O’. Accordingly, the number of hours without nest contacts and nesting activities was significantly lower when a nest box emitting pup odour was attached to the cage. Also, the does’ general activity tended to be higher in ‘O’.