Vol. 57, 2018 (update: 2018.05.03; 06.07) The Development of Mother-Calf Interactions During the First Year in Yangtze Finless Porpoises (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis asiaeorientalis)Ran Chen1,3, Wenbo Li2, Wenhua Jiang3, Bangyou Zheng3, and Jinhua Li1,4,* doi:10.6620/ZS.2018.57-23
1School
of Life Science, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, China (Received 21 January 2018; Accepted 19 April
2018; Communicated by Benny K.K. Chan) Ran
Chen, Wenbo Li, Wenhua Jiang, Bangyou Zheng, and Jinhua Li (2018)
Mother-offspring interactions are widespread in humans and other
mammals, and play an important role in offspring survival and
development. Mother-calf interactions have been described in a wide
range of ocean cetacean species, but they have not yet been documented
in freshwater cetaceans. In this study, we observed the behavior of two
mother-calf pairs of Yangtze finless porpoises living in Tongling
Freshwater Porpoise National Natural Reserve, China, to explore the
maternal relationship between mother porpoises and newborn calves
during the calves’ first year. The results showed that mothers
performed significantly more approach behaviors and fewer leave
behaviors than calves during the lactation period, but performed
significantly fewer approach and more leave behaviors than calves
during the non-lactation period (starting from the seventh month after
birth). The landmarks for maintaining intimate relationships within
each mother-calf pair occurred within sixth months of birth. The
duration of calf separations from their mothers increased with calf
age. Key words: Approach-leave
behavior, Hinde Index, Mother-calf, Interactions, Yangtze finless
porpoises. *Correspondence: Ran Chen and Wenbo Li
contributed equally to this work. E-mail: jhli@ahu.edu.cn |