Further behavioural parameters support reciprocity and milk theft as explanations for giraffe allonursing
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-86499-2Read our scientific commentaryResearch by
Markéta Gloneková, Karolína Brandlová, Jan Pluháček
Separates nursing duration, successful bouts and unsuccessful attempts to examine reciprocity and kinship in allonursing across four zoological collections.
Publication details
Study facts
- Method
- Repeated observational sampling of suckling events with mixed-model analyses of bouts and female–calf dyads.
- Location
- Four zoological collections in the Czech Republic.
- Species
- Rothschild's giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi; authors note its classification as Nubian giraffe.
- Sample
- 22 nursing females and 47 calves; 1,139 successful bouts, including 575 non-filial bouts; 153 female–calf dyads.
- Period
- Site-specific observations: Praha 2007–2013; other zoos in 2008 and/or 2011.
Full citation
Markéta Gloneková, Karolína Brandlová, Jan Pluháček (2021). Further behavioural parameters support reciprocity and milk theft as explanations for giraffe allonursing. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86499-2
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