Hunger and the vocalizations of infant gerbils

Infant gerbils were deprived of food by removing their mother from the cage for 3 hr on alternate days, during which time they remained with their father. These infants were compared with a control group which remained with their mother while the father was removed. Litters lost weight when deprived of food but they received similar levels of parental care, warmth, and tactile stimuli to those of nonfood-deprived litters. There were no significant effects on the vocalizations of the young when tested either in isolation or in the nest with other pups. This apparent absence of a mode of communicating nutritional state is discussed with reference to normal interactions between adults and the litter and the role of vocalizations produced in response to heat loss.