Saint-Dizier H, Lévy F, Ferreira G
Laboratoire Comportement, Neurobiologie et Adaptation, UMR 6175 INRA-CNRS-Université de Tours-Haras Nationaux, 37380 Nouzilly, France.
Dev Psychobiol. 2007 Jan;49(1):98-106. doi: 10.1002/dev.20197.
The aim of the study was to determine the influence of the mother in the development of flavored-food preference in lambs. First, we demonstrated that lambs that ate flavored food in the presence of their mothers before weaning ate more of this food 1 month after weaning than lambs that ate flavored food with other ewes or lambs exposed to nonflavored food with their mothers. Second, lambs that could only see their mothers eating the flavored food and had access to the food's olfactory cues before weaning, showed similar preference for flavored food 1 month after weaning to lambs that ate the flavored food with their mothers. However, lambs that were separated from their mothers while their mothers consumed flavored food did not reveal a preference for it. Overall these results suggest that development of food preference in lambs depends mainly on observation of the mother, provided there is also access to olfactory cues characterizing the food.
本研究的目的是确定母亲对羔羊风味食物偏好发展的影响。首先，我们证明，在断奶前与母亲一起进食风味食物的羔羊，在断奶后1个月比与其他母羊一起进食风味食物或与母亲一起接触非风味食物的羔羊，会进食更多这种食物。其次，在断奶前只能看到母亲进食风味食物并能接触到食物嗅觉线索的羔羊，在断奶后1个月对风味食物的偏好与和母亲一起进食风味食物的羔羊相似。然而，在母亲食用风味食物时与其分开的羔羊并没有表现出对它的偏好。总体而言，这些结果表明，羔羊食物偏好的发展主要取决于对母亲的观察，前提是也能接触到表征该食物的嗅觉线索。
