ESTABLISHMENT OF MATERNAL BONDING AND ITS MEDIATION BY VAGINOCERVICALSTIMULATION IN GOATS

To investigate the establishment of offspring recognition in mother go ats,11 females were subjected to two successive 5-min tests with their own kid and an alien, 2 h 30 min postpartum. All mothers accepted the ir own kid, while nine rejected the alien. This suggests that in goats , 2.5 h are sufficient for the development of an exclusive bond with t he kid. We also studied the role of physiological factors mediating ma ternal bonding in this species. Eight of the nine goats that rejected alien kids were, therefore, submitted to 5 min of vaginocervical stimu lation (VCS) immediately following the selectivity tests. Of these eig ht goats, five changed their behavior after VCS and accepted the alien kid (0/8 before VCS vs. 5/8 after VCS, p = 0.031). Thus, VCS appears to reduce rejection behavior towards alien kids while resulting in a s ignificant increase in their rate of acceptance. Underlying physiologi cal mechanisms by which VCS may act are discussed.