Role of maternal odors on foraging behavior during postnatal development in a solitary subterranean rodent Ctenomys talarum

We investigated the role of maternal odors emanating from excretory deposits and/or glandular secretions during the postnatal development of foraging and related behaviors in young Los Talas' tuco-tucos (Ctenomys talarum), a solitary rodent, under seminatural conditions. During cafeteria tests, we offered them two of the grasses most preferred by adults of this species (bromegrass, Bromus unioloides and panicgrass, Panicum racemosum). We scent marked one dietary option in a treatment group, and the other option in a second treatment group, keeping a third group with no odors as control. Pups did not show to prefer a special grass in particular, and maternal odors showed no effect on the behavioral variables evaluated in this study. When they reached their weaning age, they showed an ontogenetic change in food preferences, where they preferred bromegrass, and maternal odors influenced negatively on the consumption of panicgrass. During dispersal, preference for bromegrass was expressed independently of the presence of maternal odors. Overall, their effect was less pronounced than age's effect, and it was evident in only a subset of the conducted experiments. This study shows that the influence of maternal odors is not essential for the establishment of feeding or site preferences in this species in seminatural conditions, contrarily to what was observed in other studies performed with social mammal species (i.e., rats and rabbits). It is suggested that other factors (e.g., individual learning) might influence the observed preferences.