Social influence on sexual maturation and breeding in the female Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus)

Social factors influencing reproductive activity in laboratory groups of gerbils were investigated using the ventral scent-gland as an index of reproductive condition. Sexual maturation and breeding were suppressed in female offspring remaining with their parents. In family groups living in enclosures, daughters rarely bred in the presence of their mother but breeding activity increased after death. Intra-female aggression resulted in the re-establishment of a single breeding female in groups where more than one started to breed. In a controlled social situation in which females were caged with their mothers, sexual maturation was suppressed in the presence of their mother and the continuing presence of her second litter, but not in the presence of a non-pregnant mother or a mother whose second litter had been removed.