A study explores links between coprophagy and parenting in naked mole-rats. Naked mole-rats live in hierarchical, eusocial colonies in which nonbreeding subordinates perform parental duties, including grooming and corralling pups. The physiological mechanisms that spur this behavior, known as alloparenting, remain unknown. Noting that hormones drive similar activities in other species and that naked mole-rats routinely engage in coprophagy, Kazutaka Mogi and colleagues hypothesized that subordinate females gain gonadal hormones and parenting cues from the queen's feces. To test the hypothesis, the authors fed pellets to subordinate females that contained either feces from pregnant queens or from nonpregnant queens augmented with estradiol, and monitored how the females responded to recorded pup vocalizations. Both groups, the authors report, became more responsive to pups 4 days after the feeding period, compared with controls. Furthermore, fecal and urinary estradiol concentrations rose and fell in the females in a pattern that mirrored the queen's reproductive stages. The findings suggest that naked mole-rats use a mode of communication whereby one individual transfers an endogenous hormone into others to regulate parenting behavior, according to the authors.
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Article #17-20530: "Responses to pup vocalizations in subordinate naked mole-rats are induced by estradiol ingested through coprophagy of queen's feces," by Akiyuki Watarai et al .
MEDIA CONTACT: Kazutaka Mogi, School of Veterinary Medicine, Azabu University, Sagamihara, JAPAN; tel: +81-42-769-1673; e-mail: mogik@azabu-u.ac.jp
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences