NURSING BEHAVIOR IN DAM-REARED RUSSIAN SAIGA (SAIGA-TATARICA-TATARICA) AT THE SAN-DIEGO-WILD-ANIMAL-PARK

This study was designed to examine the nursing patterns and related be havior of young saiga raised by their dams. Four captive born lambs we re observed at weekly intervals during continuous 14 h watches for the first 7 weeks of life. One-week-old lambs were found to nurse at an a verage rate of 1.1 bouts per hour and nursed for an average of 14.6 se conds per bout. This high nursing frequency and the average total dail y nursing time of 242 seconds decreased rapidly with age. Saiga lambs sampled solid food as early as 4 days of age and were nearly dependent on solid food by the age of 7 weeks. Communal nursing, in which one o r more lambs would nurse from an unrelated adult female while she nurs ed her own, was common. Grooming of the lamb by the dam was never seen except immediately following birth. (c) 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.