Nature-do animals know their offspring/parents?

Submitted by StubbornAries t3_11fpak1 in askscience

Do animals like dogs and cats.. Recognize their offspring or parents or siblings when it's been a long time?

Like let's say you have a pedigree dog like your run of the mill golden retriever. They all look extremely similar. Let's say a litter of puppies all go to homes and they grow up and then 4 years later run into each other like in a dog park or something. Would the dogs recognize each other as family? Like would they know that's their mom or dad or sibling? Like do the animals have some kinda scent they give off to know that this is my litter mate... Whereas they could run across another golden retriever completely unrelated and know that it's not their family? Or let's say the other dog had the same parent dogs but not of the same litter, can they recognize the connection at least that they have the same parents?

95

Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

xxDankerstein t1_jala6xs wrote

Yes dogs have unique scents that they can recognize. Whether or not they would remember after years is another question. It would depend on how long they were together before splitting up, what age they were when they split up, and how long they were apart.

87

GeriatricHydralisk t1_jamnit3 wrote

> unique scents that they can recognize

I swear, humans' poor sense of smell sometimes makes us like a blind person studying art, keenly aware of sculpture by hopeless at understanding paintings.

Imagine how much more we'd know about the natural world if we weren't almost "blind" to one of the most important senses of most animals.

23

UseaJoystick t1_janqnh0 wrote

Our eyesight is a lot better than a lot of other animals at least. Other than damn birds

13

mcarterphoto t1_jamvv6s wrote

Maybe related - someone did a test some years back - took a handful of people into a room and let a dog in. Everyone ignored the dog except for one person, who petted it up and paid positive, emotional attention to it.

The a few years later, they took the same dog to a room of people and the "nice guy" was one of them. In every case, the dog "remembered" the "nice guy" and acted familiar with him.

Wish I could cite the actual test, simply can't remember where I read it (Maybe a Desmond Morris book? The guy who writes the animal behavior books), but it seems to play along with dogs having a "world" of scent information that's unimaginable to us. I guess if they have decent memories, there's a survival advantage in remembering a friendly scent.

24

TokerSmurf t1_jamigmc wrote

I saw a study a few years back that indicated that dogs can remember thier siblings for up to 4 years of being apart. I cant find the video but this was tested by getting groups of siblings back together after varying timeframes. The ones who had been apart for over 4 years didn't seem to recognise each other anymore.

Not sure about parent/child relationships though and also not sure if this would count for seperate litters.

16

Urchintexasyellow t1_janpp01 wrote

I think they do. If you're looking for literature, I have no scientific references, only the testimony of a dog breeder, myself. I have a dog, Dima, who had had four litters of puppies. We kept one of the puppies from the original litters, named Drea. All the puppies from the following litters recognized Drea as having higher status. Dima's last litter all got adopted by one owner, my cousin, meaning they all went to the same household. After some time passed, we took Drea to my cousin's to see how the dogs would interact. At first, they treated her like any other normal dog, excited and curious to know more about their visitor, but after recognizing her scent, they reverted to the dominance hierarchy that they established when they were puppies, recognizing Drea's higher status. Some time later, we took their mother, Dima, to my cousin's house. Upon entering the yard, all the puppies from that litter instantly recognized their mother, all three of them peed on themselves and furiously wagged their tails. She recognized her puppies as she held her head up high and instantly disciplined them when they became overly enthusiastic about seeing her. It was as if she was reminding them about recognizing and remembering boundaries. After she calmed them down, she began meticulously grooming them and after a short while, all three puppies (now fully grown dogs) all took a nap with their momma. It was something else to behold...

15

[deleted] t1_jallz7u wrote

[removed]

3

BrentOGara t1_jalmcv5 wrote

Excellent list, I've also seen research indicating that in many mammals it seems to be scent that allows the animal to make the identification.

4

Substantial_Day7447 t1_jaln2op wrote

Yes, this could be a form of phenotypic matching - this individual smells/looks/sounds like me (which also likely involves associative learning)

3

Ridder-av-reddit t1_jap1p18 wrote

Humans possess olfactory abilities akin to other animals. It is widely recognized that the scent of a newborn is distinctive and recognizable to most individuals. Although humans have evolved differently in this regard compared to other species, it is plausible that our sense of smell still serves a purpose that may not be consciously acknowledged.

1