Marking behavior is innate and not learned in the Mongolian gerbil

We studied whether marking behavior in Mongolian gerbils would be innate or learned behavior. The marking behavior was defined as "animals rubbing the ir abdominal scent glands on small protruding objects". Between 21 and 90 d ays of age, Mongolian gerbils, which were kept under such conditions that t hey would be unable to learn this behavior, were observed at intervals of 5 -15 days to find out if there were signs of the behavior or not, Six male a nd four female Mongolian gerbils were used for observing. Neonate Mongolian gerbils during the age of 3 to 28 days were fostered by ICR mother mice. W eaning Mongolian gerbils were then individually kept away from the others. Marking behavior was observed in 2 out of 6 males at 50 days of age and 2 o f 4 females at 60 days and the mean frequency of the marking behavior for 1 0 min was 3.5 in the males and 5.0 in the females. These results suggest th at marking behavior was innate and not learned behavior in Mongolian gerbil s.