Mother‐offspring interactions in feral goats—a behavioural perspective of maternal investment

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Abstract
In a herd of captive feral goats, suckling behaviour, mother‐offspring distance, kid activity, and kid growth were measured during the first 3 months of life to investigate whether male kids gained greater maternal investment than female kids. Male kids were born heavier and grew faster than female kids. Single male kids suckled more frequently than their female counterparts. Other measurements of suckling behaviour including suckling bout duration, total time spent suckling, and the proportion of suckling bouts initiated and terminated by the offspring showed no significant differences between the sexes. Spatial relationships between mothers and their offspring did not differ between male and female kids. Activity budgets showed that female kids spent more time grazing than male kids, but males spent more time involved in play and exploratory activities. Difficulties in the interpretation of three proximate measures of maternal investment—suckling behaviour, growth rate, and activity budget—highlight the need for a more direct measure of maternal investment, such as an accurate assessment of milk intake.