Communal suckling in water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis)

Abstract

Anim. Behav. Sci., Communal nursing (an adult female allowing the offspring of another conspecific female to suckle) is a relatively frequent behavior in water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis). Fourteen lactating water buffalo cows and their nursing calves were observed at a Brazilan dairy after the cows had been milked. The two variables of greatest interest were solicitations of their own mothers and other cows by the calves, and acceptances of their own offspring and non-filial calves by the cows. Correlational analyses sugested three easily discriminable clusters of variables. Calves solicited and succeeded in suckling from their own mothers more often than they did their own mothers. They were more likely to try to suckle other cows if they were rejected by their own mothers. Cows that had a high probability of accepting their own offspring tended to accept nonfilial calves as well. Calves tended to maximize the total number rather than the probability of successful solicitations. Communal suckling was not reciprocal. Communal and filial suckling results from encounters between cows and calves performing under different motivational states.

Effect of nursing behaviour, sex of the calf, and parity order on milk production of buffaloes

“…Our results show that collective nursing occur in buffalo cows, in agreement with other studies (Murphey et al, 1991;1995;Paranhos da Costa et al, 2000;Andriolo et al, 2001). The IFN values for frequency and duration were higher than CFN and NFN, different than reported by Andriolo et al Table 2.…”

“…In buffaloes, the allonursing behaviour was first observed in a feral herd of Carabao buffalos (Tulloch, 1979) and was subsequently reported by Murphey et al (1991;1995), Paranhos da Costa et al (2000), Andriolo et al (2001) and Madella-Oliveira et al (2010). The effects of calf sex and birth order in buffaloes can decisively influence social interactions during sucking, promoting differential development among calves (Paranhos da Costa et al, 2000).…”

“…Some non-mutually exclusive hypotheses have been proposed to explain why lactating females nurse alien offspring: misdirected parental care (Packer et al, 1992), reciprocity (Ekvall, 1998;Engelhardt et al, 2015;Glonekov et al, 2016), kin selection (Pusey and Packer, 1994;Ekvall, 1998;Eberle and Kappeler, 2006;Engelhardt et al, 2016), evacuation of leftover milk (Riedman and Le Boeuf, 1982;Wilkinson, 1992), inexperience of females (Murphey et al, 1991;1995), and milk theft (Murphey et al, 1995;Maniscalco et al, 2007;Zapata et al,2009;Engelhardt et al, 2014;Glonekov et al, 2016).…”

Comportamentos de amamentação e mamada em bubalinos, suas relações com período de lactação, idade e sexo dos bezerros

“…Esse comportamento foi observado em várias espécies de mamíferos, entre elas elefante-marinho (Mirounga angustirostris) (Riedman & Le Boeuf, 1982); cão-depradaria (Cynomys ludovicianus) (Hoogland et al, 1989); capivara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) (Nogueira et al, 2000); veado (Cervus elaphus hispanicus) (LandeteCastillejos et al, 2000), bovinos (Bos taurus) (Víchová & Bartoš, 2005) e búfalos (Bubalus bubalis) (Tulloch, 1979;Murphey et al, 1991Murphey et al, e 1995Andriolo, 1995;Paranhos da Costa & Andriolo, 1998;Paranhos da Costa et al, 2000;Andriolo et al, 2001;Bastos et al, 2002).…”

“…Murphey et al (1991) verificaram que as fêmeas bubalinas solicitadas com mais frequência por seus próprios bezerros e por bezerros alheios demonstraram maior tendência em aceitá-los. Os bezerros bubalinos que realizaram a aloamamentação, segundo Murphey et al (1995), tiveram esse comportamento devido ao fornecimento insuficiente de leite das mães.…”