Olfactory development in gerbil pups

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Abstract
In a 2‐choice situation, Mongolian gerbil pups show a preference for home‐cage bedding odor that appears during the 2nd postnatal week and is consistently high between Days 8 and 14. Pups show responses to certain nonanimal odors as early as Day 4, indicating that the motor capacity to orient to odors precedes the emergence of nest odor preference. Increases in pups' nest odor preference appear to parallel increases in the frequency of maternal nest‐building, an activity which can eject pups from the nest. This coincidence suggests that olfaction helps displaced pups to return to their nests.