What is it about?
Can parents rearing multiple offspring both recognize them and assess their condition from their vocalizations? We addressed this question in domestic dogs using state-of- the-art voice resynthesis allowing us to create remarkably realistic synthetic puppy whines that we presented to mothers in playback experiments. Mothers provided more care in response to whines whose pitch had been resynthesized to fall within the range specific to their litter, even more when the whines had been modified to simulate one of their weaker (smaller) puppies.
Featured Image
Photo by Ben Michel on Unsplash
Why is it important?
By unravelling the complexity of mother-puppy vocal interactions, we show that puppy whines encode litter identity, individual identity and body condition, and that mothers use this information to adjust their maternal behaviour to not just one, but multiple offspring.
Perspectives
I feel that my research fills a gap in our understanding of maternal behaviour in domestic dogs – an iconic pet species – that may help improving breeding practices by developing vocal-based tools to monitor the welfare of the mothers and their puppies.
Mathilde Massenet
ENES BIOACOUSTICS RESEARCH LABORATORY, University of Saint-Etienne, France
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Puppy whines mediate maternal behavior in domestic dogs, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, May 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2316818121.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
