Meadow Voles, Microtus Pennsylvanicus, Can Distinguish More Over-Marks From Fewer Over-Marks

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Animal Cognition

Publication Date

12-3-2004

Keywords

relative numerousness, voles, over-marks

Abstract

Is it possible that voles have a sense of number? To address this question, we determined whether voles discriminate between two different scent-marking individuals and identify the individual whose scent marks was on top more often than the other individual. We tested whether voles show a preference for the individual whose scent marks was on top most often. If so, the simplest explanation was that voles can make a relative size judgement—such as distinguishing an area containing more of one individual’s over-marks as compared to less of another individual’s over-marks. We found that voles respond preferentially to the donor that provided a greater number of over-marks as compared to the donor that provided a lesser number of over-marks. Thus, we concluded that voles might display the capacity for relative numerousness. Interestingly, female voles were better able than male voles to distinguish between small differences in the relative number of over-marks by the two scent donors.

Funding Source

Funding was provided by the NIH BRIDGE program at The University of Memphis and NIH grant AG 16954-01 to M.H.F. and NIH grant to the Tennessee Mouse Mutagenesis Consortium.

Comments

This article was originally published as Ferkin, M.H., Pierce, A., Sealand, R. and delBarco-Trillo, J. (2005) Meadow voles, Microtus pennsylvanicus, can distinguish more over-marks from fewer over-marks. Animal Cognition. 8: 182-189. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-004-0244-9.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-004-0244-9

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