Scent Discrimination by Infant Nine-Banded Armadillos

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Abstract
We tested the scent-discrimination abilities of infant (i.e., young-of-the-year) nine-banded armadillos (Dasypus novemcinctus) in two-choice tests. The amount of time spent near and the number of touches (with the snout) directed at pads containing various odors were recorded. Infants spent more time near and investigated more often a pad containing their own odor over a pad with no odor (indicating infants could detect the test odors), a pad containing their own odor over one containing odors from a strange infant (i.e., a nonsibling), a pad containing odors from a sibling over one containing odors from a strange infant, and a pad containing their sibling's scent over a pad containing their own scent. These results indicate the potential for discrimination of kin in this species and further suggest that the odors used in discrimination may be individually distinct. This latter result is surprising because nine-banded armadillos are born in litters of genetically identical quadruplets.

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