Home odor preferences in young hares (Lepus capensis syriacus): Effects of age and role of maternal presence

The odor preferences of mother‐reared and hand‐reared young hares between 1–30 days of age were studied. Subjects were exposed daily to three choice tests in which the following pairs of odors were presented: home cage odor (HCO)‐neutral odor (NO); HCO‐strange cage odor (SCO); SCO‐NO. All young strongly preferred their HCO over SCO throughout the 30‐day period. HCO was preferred over NO until the age of 20 days, while avoidance of SCO was shown during the first 10 or 20 days. The same experiment conducted on postweaned hares (31–50 days of age) revealed a strong preference for SCO over both HCO and NO. These findings may be interpreted with respect to the natural history of the hare and its unusual mother‐young relationship, which, in the wild, is limited to a single daily meeting for nursing. It is suggested that the highly precocial hare recognizes and prefers its home odor independently of any maternal contribution to that odor, possibly relying on odor cues from its own body to return to its nursing site. Other possible advantages of these olfactory preferences, including predation avoidance and facilitation of social relationships, are discussed.