Play in juvenile mink: litter effects, stability over time, and motivational heterogeneity

• Published in: Developmental psychobiology Vol. 58; no. 8; pp. 945 - 957
• Main Authors: Ahloy Dallaire, Jamie, Mason, Georgia J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.12.2016
• Subjects: Age Factors; American mink; animal behavior; Animals; Behavior, Animal - physiology; Female; juvenile period; Male; Mink - physiology; Motivation - physiology; motivational substitutes; object play; rough-and-tumble play; motivational substitutes; play; object play; juvenile period; animal behavior; rough-and-tumble play; American mink
• ISSN: 0012-1630; 1098-2302
• DOI: 10.1002/dev.21425

Mink are potentially ideal for investigating the functions of play: deleterious effects of early social isolation suggest a crucial developmental role for play; and huge numbers of highly playful juvenile subjects can be studied on farms. We collected descriptive data on 186 pairs from 93 litters, half provided with play‐eliciting environmental enrichment objects in their home cages, to test three hypotheses: (1) play frequency is subject to litter effects; (2) relative playfulness is stable over time; (3) play sub‐types share a single, common motivational basis. We found weak litter effects that were driven by stronger litter effects on general activity, and weakly stable individual differences in both total and rough‐and‐tumble play. Experimentally increasing object play did not inhibit rough‐and‐tumble play, showing these sub‐types are not motivational substitutes. Frequencies of these sub‐types were also uncorrelated, and changed differently with time of day and age, further supporting this conclusion.