Premium
Hunger and the vocalizations of infant gerbils
Author(s) -
McCauley Patrick J.,
Elwood Robert W.
Publication year - 1984
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.420170208
Subject(s) - litter , nest (protein structural motif) , audiology , psychology , developmental psychology , physiology , biology , zoology , medicine , ecology , biochemistry
Infant gerbils were deprived of food by removing their mother from the cage for 3 hr on alternate days, during which time they remained with their father. These infants were compared with a control group which remained with their other while the father was removed. Litters lost weight when deprived of food but they received similar levels of parental care, warmth, and tactile stimuli to those of nonfood‐deprived litters. There were no significant effects on the vocalizations of the young when tested either in isolation or in the nest with other pups. This apparent absence of a mode of communicating nutritional sate is discussed with reference to normal interactions between adults and the litter and the role of vocalizations produced in response to heat loss.