Establishment of vocal communication and discrimination between ewes and their lamb in the first two days after parturition

Abstract

In sheep, the mother-young relationship is characterized by an exclusive bond that relies on the rapid establishment of mutual recognition. However, the role of acoustic cues has been underestimated and neglected in this early discrimination. Therefore, the aim of the present study was (1) to characterize the vocal behavior of ewes and their lambs during the first 15 days postpartum and (2) to investigate the ability of newborn lambs and their mothers to discriminate each other from alien subjects within the first 48 hr postpartum on the basis of acoustic cues only. Ewes started to vocalize in the last 3 hr preceding parturition, emitting mainly high-pitched bleats. However, the bleating activity was highest during the first 3 hr following birth, consisting mainly of low-pitched bleats. Thereafter it decreased sharply until 24 hr postpartum, with most of the activity coming from the mother. In a two-choice test, ewes discriminated their own from an alien lamb on the basis of acoustic cues only at 24 hr postpartum, while lambs did so for their mother at 48 hr, which in both cases was much earlier than reported so far. We conclude that early vocal recognition between the ewe and her lamb may play an important role for the maintenance of mother-young contact. ß 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 49: 375-386, 2007.

Maternal behaviour and peripartum levels of oestradiol and progesterone show little difference in Merino ewes selected for calm or nervous temperament under indoor housing conditions

“…Therefore, the higher vocal activity of nervous mothers is probably a general reflection of their nervous temperament rather than some specific difference of maternal behaviour with calm ewes. Furthermore, recent studies have shown that even high-pitched bleats are part of the normal repertoire of postparturient ewes and that vocal communication, both through low-and high-pitched bleats, is beneficial for the mother-young bond (Sè be et al, 2007 and2009) and that emission of high-pitched bleats tends to increase after parturition (Dwyer et al, 1998). Therefore, the difference in vocal activity encountered here between the two temperament lines of mothers is unlikely to contribute to the poorer lamb survival found in nervous ewes.…”

MRI Techniques and New Animal Models for Imaging the Brain

“…Similarly, olfaction is important in establishing maternal recognition by the lamb, and the development of the mother-young bond is reinforced by orogastro-intestinal stimulation ). However, while olfaction is the first proximal sense used (i) by the mother and infant to establish a bond, and (ii) by the male and female to identify social partners, visual (Kendrick et al 2001) and auditory (Sebe et al 2007, Sebe et al 2008 factors are also involved in the expression of social preferences.…”

Differential effects of undernutrition during pregnancy on the behaviour of does and their kids at parturition and on the establishment of mutual recognition

“…At very short range (,0.25 m in ewes, Alexander, 1978; ,1 m in goats, Poindron et al, 2003), recognition depends primarily on olfactory cues (Lé vy et al, 1996;Kendrick et al, 1997) and it controls the selective access of their own young to the udder (Lé vy et al, 2004). At greater distances recognition depends on visual and acoustic cues (Alexander and Shillito, 1977;Alexander, 1978;Poindron et al, 2003;Sè be et al, 2007). As these two systems are independent (Poindron et al, 2007a and2007c), they were both taken into account to assess maternal recognition in the present study.…”