Premium
Social vole parents force their mates to baby‐sit
Author(s) -
Libhaber Noga,
Eilam David
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.10075
Subject(s) - nest (protein structural motif) , psychology , hoarding (animal behavior) , vole , paternal care , developmental psychology , parental investment , offspring , social psychology , zoology , demography , feeding behavior , biology , pregnancy , population , biochemistry , genetics , sociology
Abstract Parental care has been categorized into direct and indirect investment. The former includes direct contact with the offspring, as in lactation or huddling with the pups, and the latter includes activities such as nest building or hoarding food for the guarding mate. We report here an unfamiliar type of parental behavior in which one parent aggressively forces its mate to stay in the nest with the pups. In this “forced baby‐sitting,” one parent grasps the fur of its mate and drags it toward the nest. The behavior was observed in 6 of 10 pairs of the social vole ( Microtus socilalis guentheri ) and was typically executed by the male. Dragging the mate to the nest was not correlated with other parental behaviors; neither could we explain why‐when it occurred. However, this behavioral pattern was eye catching, and its goal was obviously to enforce the mate to stay in the nest with the pups. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 41: 236–240, 2002. Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/dev.10075 To view video clips of “forced babysitting,” go to the journal's supplementary materials site .