Social environment and reproduction in female European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus): Benefits of the presence of litter sisters.

Abstract

The authors investigated in an observational study the consequences of the presence of litter sisters on the social interactions and on reproductive performance of young female European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) from a population living under seminatural conditions. In early winter, when all young females were settled in a social group, they were characterized by the presence or absence of litter sisters in their groups. Females with litter sisters in their groups displayed significantly more positive social interaction with females of their social group compared to females without sisters, whereas this difference was mainly due to the high frequency of positive social interactions among the respective sisters. Such differences between the females of both categories were already apparent during the animals' juvenile phase, before the females integrated into a particular group: females which later had litter sisters in their group showed more positive social behavior than females which later no longer had litter sisters. During their first breeding season, females with litter sisters present generally started to breed earlier by an average of 14 days. A more favorable social environment might have possibly facilitated the earlier onset of breeding in females with present litter sisters by attenuating the negative consequences of stress.

Development of behavior in the litter huddle in rat pups: Within‐ and between‐litter differences

“…Particularly notable is the similarity of the present findings to those from broadly comparable studies of within-and between-litter differences in growth and behavior of pups within the litter huddle in newborn wild and domestic rabbits Drummond et al, 2000;Rödel, Starkloff, et al, 2008). Given that the rabbit and rat, the one a lagomorph and the other a rodent, are from rather different taxonomic groups and have very different mothering styles (minimal vs. intensive mother-young contact, respectively; Bautista, Martínez-Gómez, Grota & Adler, 1969), the within-and between-litter differences found here might represent patterns common to many, if not all, litter-bearing species.…”

“…4). In conclusion, lighter pups, and particularly those from large litters in which competition for the mother's milk is usually greater (Hudson & Trillmich, 2008), can channel fewer resources into growth as a result of fewer thermally advantageous body contacts with littermates and having to work harder to achieve even these (Rödel, Starkloff, et al, 2008).…”

“…The existence of such a link is supported by studies in several mammalian species showing that young with low postnatal growth or body mass often have reduced motor abilities or poorer muscle development in comparison to same-age but heavier offspring (laboratory rat Rattus norvegicus: Gramsbergen & Westerga, 1992;Salas, 1972; domestic pig Sus scrofa : Foxcroft et al, 2006; domestic rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus : Muciño, Bautista, Jímenez, Martínez-Gómez, & Hudson, 2009). Furthermore, the importance of sibling presence or interactions among them for an individual's behavioral development, including the acquisition of social skills, has been highlighted both in studies of birds (Edwards, 1989) and mammals (Bekoff, 1977;Nunes, Muecke, Sanchez, Hoffmeier, & Lancaster, 2004;Rödel, Starkloff, Bruchner, & von Holst, 2008;Uriarte, Ferreira, Rosa, Sebben, & Lucion, 2008).…”

Masculinized female yellow-bellied marmots initiate more social interactions

“…Perhaps masculinized females simply engage in those behaviours that peak in each ontogenetic state, independently of the nature of the behaviour, and this might be driven by higher exploration rates: an animal that explores more will increase its rate of encounters with conspecifics, increasing the chances of social interactions. Higher rates of interactions might have several important consequences, from influencing disease dynamics [23] to indirectly increasing an animal's fitness [24]. Some evidence of increased exploration rates comes from the lack of selectivity of the interactions: females that interacted more did so with a greater number of different partners.…”

Impact of rearing mangement on health in domestic rabbits: a review

“…Relationships among females usually stabilize and aggression becomes ritualized once a rank order is established (Mykytowycz and Rowley, 1958;von Holst et al, 2002), and bonding among female kin can help in stabilizing the social structure within a female group (Rödel et al, 2008c). However, group territories in wild rabbits are large (in a field enclosure study, 0.05-0.7 ha; Rödel et al, 2008b), and animals can avoid and escape aggressive encounters.…”