Enduring Maternal Influences in a Precocial Rodent

The guinea pig is highly developed at birth and requires little active maternal care. Yet the mother and other social figures markedly influence biobehavioral processes of the offspring. Here, responses of guinea pigs and nonhuman primates to maternal and other social separation procedures are compared, and influences of social partners on endocrine responses and behavior in periadolescent guinea pigs are described. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 42: 225–236, 2003