How mothers influence the development of litter-mate preferences in Belding's ground squirrels

We performed three experiments to examine the role of mothers in the development of litter-mate preferences in captive juvenile Belding's ground squirrels, Spermophilus beldingi. First, when observed in the absence of mothers, juveniles did not play preferentially with litter-mates, which suggests that mothers somehow influence the ontogeny of litter-mate preferences. Second, when mothers were present but unable to intervene in social interactions, juveniles displayed litter-mate preferences, which suggests that mothers do not influence their offsprings' social development by directly intervening in social interactions; In another group, mothers were removed daily, a few hours before nocturnal immergence, and returned the following morning. Juveniles in this group did not display litter-mate preferences and at night they occupied burrows with many more non-litter-mates than litter-mates. These results suggest that associating with non-litter-mates can compromise the development of litter-mate preferences, and implies that mothers indirectly influence social development by affecting the identities of sleeping partners. Third, newly emergent juveniles that interacted only with litter-mates for 3 days in the absence of mothers subsequently preferred litter-mates over non-litter-mates as play partners. This result demonstrates that once litter-mate preferences are instilled, due in part to social experiences during juveniles' initial days above-ground, the preferences are expressed even in the absence of mothers. Collectively, the results demonstrate that the presence of S. beldingi mothers is important to juvenile social development, but that mothers do not actively direct the ontogeny of their offsprings' social relationships. (C) 1998 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.