BEHAVIORAL INTERACTIONS BETWEEN JUVENILE 9-BANDED ARMADILLOS (DASYPUS-NOVEMCINCTUS) IN STAGED ENCOUNTERS

Juvenile nine-banded armadillos (Daspus novemcinctus) discriminate bet ween the scents of siblings and nonsiblings, spending more time near a nd investigating more often the scent of a sibling. In the present exp eriment we examined whether the ability to make such distinctions gene rates behavioral differences in how juveniles interact with one anothe r. Two juveniles (siblings or nonsiblings) were placed in an arena and the ensuing interactions were videotaped. Contrary to expectation, ju venile armadillos showed no evidence of behavioral discrimination betw een siblings and nonsiblings. All interactions were highly amicable an d aggressive behavior was almost completely absent. The absence of beh avioral discrimination between juvenile armadillos may be due to (1) t he lack of an appropriate context for discrimination in our experiment s; (2) ontogenetic considerations such that only older animals actuall y exhibit discrimination, or (3) low genetic variability in our popula tion that makes discrimination less important.