The influence of the male on maternal behaviour in the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus)

The Evolution of Male Parental Investment in Mammals

“…As already mentioned, in gerbils the male has been claimed to increase, decrease, or have no effect on the fitness of offspring (Ahroon and Fidura, 1976;Elwood and Broom, 1978;Gerling and Yahr, 1979;Klippel, 1979), but the different experimental conditions apparently greatly affected the results. In other experiments, huddling and retrieving by virgin mice housed with mothers (Sayler and Salmon, 1971) decreased the mean weaning weight of the young, suggesting that apparently caregiving behaviors may have deleterious effects.…”

“…While several authors (e.g., Elwood, 1975;Elwood and Broom, 1978;Gerling and Yahr, 1979) have shown that male parental care is common in gerbils and does not negatively affect pup survivorship, Ahroon and Fidura (1976) found that the presence of a male significantly increased pup mortality. More recently, several explanations have been proposed for these contradictory findings [Klippel (a.k.a.…”

“…More recently, several explanations have been proposed for these contradictory findings [Klippel (a.k.a. Ahroon), 1979], most of which relate to the transport and housing of the experimental animals in the Ahroon and Fidura (1976) study.…”

Social organization in the Mongolian gerbil

“…The first such study (Ahroon and Fidura, 1976) used fourteen pairs of gerbils obtained from a dealer when the females were pregnant. Seven females were each housed with the male, whereas the remaining seven were each housed alone.…”