Ethology

The ability of prey to eavesdrop on predator vocalizations is expected to increase survival by reducing detection and capture. Unfortunately, most research has been conducted in vertebrates, and little is known about this ability in invertebrates. We measured latency to emerge, overall activity, and shelter visits in wild-caught fall field crickets (Gryllus pennsylvanicus) in response to acoustic playback. Stimuli included multiple predator vocalizations, non-predator vocalizations, white noise, and a control. We predicted that crickets would reduce activity, spend more time in shelter, and freeze in response to stimuli representing greater risk. Contrary to our predictions, crickets traveled greater distances, spent more time moving, and spent less time in shelter in response to predator vocalizations versus controls. We did not, however, find clear differences in responses between predator vocalizations and other treatments. Our results suggest that crickets may not differentiate between the vocalizations of predators, non-predators, and other abrupt sounds. Consequently, eavesdropping may not be a viable method of assessing predation risk for this species and its general use remains unclear.

Honey bees can swim on the water surface toward dark regions, a behavior known as scototaxis that may facilitate escape from water. Although this behavior has been reported in both honey bees and solitary bees, variation among honey bee species remains poorly understood. We compared scototaxis during swimming in four honey bee species representing two nesting types: open-nesting (Apis florea and A. dorsata) and cavity-nesting (A. cerana and A. mellifera). Individual bees were released into a water-filled arena containing a dark sector, and their landing angles were recorded. All species exhibited significant orientation toward the dark sector. However, open-nesting species showed significantly stronger orientation than cavity-nesting species. No significant differences were detected between replicate colonies within species or between species within the same nesting type, whereas differences between nesting types were highly significant. Hierarchical clustering based on orientation strength placed Osmia, a solitary cavity-nesting bee from our previous study, in the same behavioral cluster as the two open-nesting Apis species rather than the cavity-nesting honey bees. We also measured swimming duration, distance, and velocity, but found no consistent differences between nesting types. These results demonstrate substantial interspecific variation in swimming scototaxis. The behavioral clustering is consistent with the hypothesis that strong scototaxis represents an ancestral trait that has been reduced in the derived A. cerana/A. mellifera lineage.

Animal personality is the expression of consistent among-individual variation in a behavioural trait across time and context. The application of this theory to behavioural research provides a valuable framework to investigate the among- and within-individual variation in behaviour. The animal personality theory is particularly relevant to understand and diagnostic fish welfare. It can be integrated within the nature-based welfare framework, which emphasizes the expression of species-specific behaviours and the maintenance of consistent behavioural patterns over time. Because behavioural trait such as boldness may be closely linked to other functional phenotypes, such associations reflect the broader concept of animal personality, whereby a behavioural trait can covary with another phenotypic trait to support an adaptive responses to environmental conditions. Although these relationships are both species and context dependent, they are consistently shaped by environmental conditions and environmental complexity tend to promote species specific behaviours and reduce maladaptive traits. Here we examined how structural environmental complexity shapes personality in Arctic charr and their covarying functional phenotypes, specifically growth rate and brain size. We propose that environmental complexity promotes alternative behavioural and functional phenotypes through multivariate phenotypic plasticity. We found that environmental complexity did not influence mean boldness between both treatments, but repeatability of boldness in the complex environment was remarkably consistent over a longer-term period, while estimates collapse after seven days in the plain treatment. Our findings are a clear evidence that environmental complexity foster stable behavioural trait expression and that a plain environment may suppress personality. Our results provide compelling evidence that behavioural structure and dynamics are embedded within patterns of behavioural variance. Although we found no support for behavioural covariation or associations with growth rate and brain size, we suggest that the animal personality framework may offer a valuable approach for diagnosing fish welfare issues through the partitioning of behavioural variance.

Species exhibit variation in their circadian activity rhythms, including being active during the day (diurnal), the night (nocturnal), or the twilight periods (crepuscular). While the influence of environmental factors such as light on entraining and controlling activity patterns is well known, it is unclear how social and abiotic factors affect circadian behaviors. The daily activity patterns of Lake Tanganyikan cichlid fish are diverse, and may be associated with species diversification. Intriguingly, some shell-dwelling cichlid species, which anecdotal observation suggests are diurnal, displayed strong nocturnal activity when assayed in a "common garden" lab setup. Here, by integrating field and lab-based studies, we provide three lines of evidence that social and environmental cues mask underlying circadian rhythms in shell-dwelling cichlids. First, we demonstrate that shell-dwelling cichlids are diurnal in their natural habitat, but convert to nocturnal activity when assayed alone in a common garden. Second, we identify that in the presence of a shell and conspecifics the highly social N. multifasciatus becomes diurnal. In contrast, the circadian activity pattern of a closely related, but sub-social species, N. brevis, is masked only by a shell, and unaffected by the presence of conspecifics. Third, we demonstrate that the masking effect of shells and conspecifics is circadian and continues in the absence of light. Fourth, we identify that the response to these cues is influenced by sex, with greater effects in female fish, and by pedigree, with stronger effects in individuals bred and raised in captivity compared to those captured in the wild. Together, these experiments reveal new relationships between circadian rhythms and sociality in these fishes, offering broader insights into the ecological and evolutionary drivers of these behaviours.

Chorus howls play a central role in wolves' (Canis lupus) social communication, shaping both intra- and inter-pack interactions. While synchrony has been shown to influence perceived threat from outgroups in birds and humans, whether the synchrony of an outside pack's chorus howl plays a role in wolf pack behaviour remains unclear. This study investigated behavioural responses of 19 zoo-housed wolf packs to playbacks of synchronous and asynchronous chorus howls from unfamiliar packs, in comparison to a dove control call. We hypothesized that packs would show stronger intra-pack cohesion and greater spatial withdrawal in response to more synchronous, and thus cohesive - and potentially more formidable - sounding vocalisations. Alternatively, asynchronous howls might elicit stronger responses due to their ambiguity and the "Beau Geste" effect (where asynchronous signals make it harder to infer the number of callers). Synchronous howls resulted in more distance from the sound source and less activity compared with asynchronous howls. This could be interpreted as a more cautious response towards a perceived threat. However, since there was no effect on pack-directed behaviour and no difference between the synchronous and control sound, lower interest or motivation to engage with the stimulus cannot be excluded. In contrast, wolves spent more time near the sound-source after hearing asynchronous howls, approached it more, and oriented towards it for longer compared to synchronous playbacks, a pattern consistent with threat-investigation. In how far these reactions result from a more difficult localisation of synchronous howls or more ambiguity in pack size in the asynchronous playbacks, as well as how this translates to wild wolf behaviour, remains to be investigated.

Animals face a fundamental trade-off between food-related competition and predation risk in how they allocate time and behavior. Nocturnal mammals offer a particularly tractable system for testing this trade-off because moonlight creates a natural, quantifiable gradient in both predation risk and the visibility needed for safe movement. We used minute-by-minute focal observations of nine kinkajous (Potos flavus; 4 female, 5 male) in Panama to test how fruit abundance and moonlight predicted nocturnal activity budgets (percent time traveling, feeding, resting) and nightly travel distance. Beta-family generalized linear mixed models and a linear mixed model of log travel distance showed that fruit abundance was positively associated with percent time traveling and with nightly travel distance, and negatively associated with percent time feeding: kinkajous traveled more and fed less per hour when fruit was abundant, consistent with movement between many nearby productive trees rather than prolonged feeding at a few. Males traveled less as moonlight increased, while females traveled more. Rainfall had no independent effect. We interpret the sex-reversed moonlight response as evidence that moonlight elevates predation risk for males while facilitating movement for the more food-limited females of this frugivorous carnivore.

The vast majority of birds are diurnal and concentrate their vocal activity during daylight hours. However, some diurnal birds can also be vocally active at night, although the functions of this phenomenon remain poorly understood. We conducted playback experiments in the Warta Landscape Park (central Poland) to determine whether nocturnal singing by diurnal birds serves breeding-related functions by analysing responses to playback of songs from unfamiliar conspecific males. The sedge warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus) was selected as the focal species because it exhibits relatively high levels of nocturnal song activity, while nine additional diurnal species detected near focal sedge warbler territories were included to explore whether responsiveness to nocturnal conspecific song extended across a broader taxonomic range. Playback experiments were conducted during the early and late stages of the breeding season and during the early and late parts of the nautical night. Out of 10 species tested, three responded vocally: sedge warbler, Savi s warbler (Locustella luscinioides), and common snipe (Gallinago gallinago). Sedge warblers did not modify song rate and song duration but increased flight activity after nocturnal playback. Savi s warblers and common snipes produced more vocalisations after playback than before in May, a pattern consistent with territorial defence function. General nocturnal vocal activity was higher at the beginning of the season, suggesting that birds motivation to establish territories and form pairs can extend into the night, providing additional benefits. Moreover, the probability of singing by the sedge warbler was higher in the latter part of the night. Our study demonstrates that nocturnal stimulation of foreign male playback of diurnal birds can elicit vocal responses from conspecifics, suggesting that nocturnal singing can occur in the absence of obvious artificial light pollution, but in the case of some species and environmental conditions, it may contribute to nocturnal social communication, especially in the early breeding season.

Environmental predictability influences the value of information acquired through experience, yet relatively little is known about how instability in resource characteristics influences behavioural organisation during foraging. We tested whether repeated changes in floral orientation, a manipulation of environmental predictability, affect pollen foraging in bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) by exposing naive workers to either stable floral conditions (single flower orientation) or repeated inter-trial changes in flower orientation (three alternating flower orientations), under constant resource availability. We quantified pollen collection, foraging efficiency, revisitation behaviour, floral coverage and sonication behaviour across three successive foraging trials of either constant or variable flower orientation, before assessing performance in a common post-treatment preference test in which bees were offered all three flower orientations and higher pollen rewards. Environmental instability altered the organisation of foraging behaviour. Bees exposed to unstable floral conditions progressively reduced flower revisitation behaviour and were less likely to perform sonication, although floral coverage, defined as the number of unique flowers visited, remained unchanged. Contrary to our predictions, instability had only weak immediate effects on pollen acquisition and foraging efficiency compared to bees tested under stable conditions. However, previous exposure to instability generated carry-over effects in the common post-treatment preference test. Bees previously exposed to unstable conditions were significantly less likely to return with pollen and consequently collected less pollen overall than bees previously exposed to stable conditions. Our results demonstrate that environmental instability can influence pollen foraging in ways that are not captured by immediate measures of performance. Although behavioural adjustments appeared to buffer short-term consequences during repeated foraging trials, carry-over effects were evident when bees were later tested in a common high-reward, multi-orientation floral array. These findings highlight the importance of considering both behavioural flexibility and carry-over effects when evaluating how organisms respond to changing environments.

Behavioral test batteries are increasingly used to characterize multiple functional domains in zebrafish, yet the potential impact of test sequence on behavioral outcomes remains poorly defined. Here, we systematically evaluated whether test order influences behavioral responses in a three-assay battery comprising the novel tank test (NTT), mirror-induced aggression (MIA), and social preference (SP) test. Adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) were exposed to all possible permutations of the three assays in a fully counterbalanced design, allowing assessment of order effects across locomotor, anxiety-like, aggression-related, and social behaviors. Test order produced modest and parameter-specific effects, primarily affecting locomotor activity in the NTT and social proximity in the SP assay. Time-course analysis revealed within-test behavioral dynamics, with limited evidence that test order modulates early adaptation or late engagement with the testing environment but does not alter overall temporal response profiles. Sex-dependent effects were assay-specific and most pronounced in the NTT, with no consistent sex differences observed in MIA or SP. To evaluate the global structure of behavioral variation, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed across assays. Despite localized effects of test order, no clear multivariate separation between test sequences was observed, indicating that sequential testing does not produce distinct baseline phenotypes. Together, these findings support the robustness and reproducibility of multidomain behavioral batteries while highlighting the importance of standardized test-order reporting to improve cross-study comparability.

Developing robust methods to quantify how animals allocate time across behaviours is essential for understanding energy use, habitat requirements, and responses to environmental change. For cryptic, semi-aquatic mammals such as the platypus, direct observation is difficult, creating a reliance on remote biologging approaches that can reliably infer behaviour in the wild. However, aquatic environments can both smooth acceleration signals through hydrodynamic damping and introduce noise from water movement, turbulence, and drag, potentially obscuring behavioural differences of similar magnitudes. We tested whether progressively incorporating biomechanical and frequency-domain (FFT-derived) predictors improved behavioural classification in hydrodynamically challenging aquatic environments. Tri-axial accelerometers were deployed on four ex situ platypuses, with synchronised video observations used to validate behaviour. From the acceleration data, we derived three predictor classes of increasing complexity: summary statistics describing activity level, engineered biomechanical variables capturing posture and body orientation, and FFT-derived features describing movement rhythm. These predictors were progressively incorporated into Random Forest models to classify five behaviours: burrow resting, surface resting, grooming, travelling/foraging, and diving. Model performance improved with increasing predictor complexity, although gains were behaviour specific. FFT-derived features substantially improved classification of rhythmic behaviours such as diving and foraging, while engineered biomechanical predictors improved grooming detection. In contrast, resting behaviours, particularly surface resting, showed little improvement. Overall accuracy increased from [~]75% to [~]88% when frequency-domain features were included. Misclassification was greatest among behaviours with overlapping or low-amplitude signals, and cross-individual validation revealed reduced model generalisability, indicating that individual variation in movement patterns constrained transferability. Incorporating frequency-domain features substantially improved behavioural classification in platypuses, particularly for rhythmic behaviours such as diving and foraging. This study provides the first validated accelerometry-based behavioural classification framework for the species and highlights the importance of matching predictor selection to behavioural mechanics. More broadly, the approach offers a transferable framework for aquatic and semi-aquatic taxa.

BACKGROUND: Varroa destructor is the major ectoparasite of honey bees and a vector of viral pathogens. Because pathogen transmission and exposure to contact-active acaricides depend on mite host contacts, understanding the factors governing host residence time is important for both disease epidemiology and pest management. We quantified host residence time under varying bee densities and host-type compositions. RESULTS: Mean residence time was 9.48 h across 312 host-residence events. Mites remained on individual hosts for only 2.36 h on Day 1 but approximately 11-14 h from Day 2 onward. A generalized linear mixed model showed a strong positive effect of day on residence time ({beta} = 0.341, SE = 0.044, P < 0.001), corresponding to an approximately 41% increase in residence time per day. Excluding Day 1 eliminated this effect (P = 0.16), indicating that the temporal pattern was driven primarily by the initial exposure period. Reconstructing Day 1 observations to an 8-hour schedule confirmed that this pattern was not an artifact of observation frequency. Neither host type nor bee density affected residence time, and mite occupancy of nurse bees matched host availability. CONCLUSION: Host residence time was governed primarily by initial exposure rather than host identity or moderate crowding. The results identify a previously undescribed exploratory phase immediately after mites enter a novel adult-bee population. Because shorter residence times imply more frequent host switching, these findings improve our understanding of pathogen transmission dynamics and may help explain variation in the performance of contact-based Varroa control strategies.

Classic socio-ecological theory predicts that males and females experience different sources and mechanisms of social competition. Whether these differences translate into sex-specific structural properties of dominance hierarchies remains unclear. Here, we compiled 156 dominance interaction matrices from 80 published studies and extracted three commonly used metrics - hierarchy steepness, linearity and the directional consistency index - to investigate the structural characteristics of male and female dominance hierarchies across primates. All three metrics were strongly affected by methodological and demographic variables. Steepness increased with the number of recorded interactions and group size, linearity decreased as matrices became sparser, and directional consistency declined with increasing numbers of interactions. Steepness covaried positively with both linearity and directional consistency, indicating that groups with steeper hierarchies also exhibited more linear and more directionally consistent relationships. We found no sex differences in steepness, linearity or directional consistency. These results suggest that current metrics primarily reflect variation in the sampling effort and the rate of interaction of the recorded behaviour and appear therefore not to capture potential sex differences in the forms of competition. Our findings highlight the need for alternative measures of power asymmetries that are less confounded by sampling effort and demographic variation to better understand how competition and conflict are structured across primate societies.

Mobbing is a collective antipredator behaviour in which animals approach and harass a threat while coordinating signals to alert conspecifics, recruit allies, or deter predators. In group-living Arabian babblers (Argya squamiceps), snake mobbing involves two distinct signals: acoustic "zwick" calls inaudible to the snake and visual wing-lifting displays. We elicited snake-mobbing events with dummy vipers and recorded babbler groups using a synchronized acoustic camera enabling individual caller identification and postural analysis. Our results reveal the different and similar roles of the two signals in babblers' multimodal mobbing behaviour. Recruitment order was independent of sex, age and rank. Individual investment in mobbing signaling decreased as group size increased, supporting the hypotheses of social buffering and predation risk dilution. Solitary individuals always called during wing-lifts, supporting the calls' recruitment function. Mobbing individuals responded faster (with signaling) to a joint visual-acoustic conspecific display than an only acoustic signal. When coupled, wing-lifts significantly altered vocal characteristics, decreasing call frequency and increasing call rate, thus strengthening the acoustic signal. Moreover, calls emitted toward the end of the wing-lift display exhibit stronger vocal modulation. Together, these findings demonstrate the multi-functional role of multi-modal mobbing signals during a risky cooperative task balancing social communication and predator deterrence.

Across different modalities, signals play a core role in attracting mates and influencing mating success. In several non-human primate species, females produce calls during mating that are thought to promote male competition over receptive females. The extent to which social system characteristics modulate the function of copulation calls remains less clear. We studied copulation calls in wild Guinea baboons (Papio papio), who live in a multilevel society structured around units in which females associate and mate almost exclusively with a single male. We hypothesised that females use copulation calls as an indirect form of mate competition, with competition increasing in larger units. In addition, we hypothesised that females are more likely to mate again after calling. We analysed 6116 copulations between 2014 and 2025, involving 99 reproductively active females and 78 subadult and adult males. Females produced copulation calls in 72.7% of copulations, with large inter-individual variation. Neither unit size nor its interaction with the female's swelling size or the presence of simultaneously receptive females affected the probability of calling. A survival analysis with a subset of the data (2353 copulations) revealed no effect of calling on the latency to the next mating. Our results render the hypothesis that female Guinea baboons use calls in indirect mate competition unlikely. Yet, the probability of calling varied with sexual swelling size, suggesting that calls signal female fertility. Possibly, Guinea baboon copulation calls represent an evolutionary remnant, no longer under selective pressure, and can be considered index signals of female fertility.

In vertebrates, top-down visual attention is a cognitive process where internal goals modulate the tuning of peripheral sensory systems. This leads to increased perceived contrast to both goal-relevant objects and areas of the visual field that are attended. Such a system would also be beneficial to bees, enabling them to detect and recognise the most profitable flowers in their environment. We tested whether bumblebees possess a top-down attentional system resembling that seen in vertebrates. We trained two groups of bees to collect rewards under high contrast targets. To potentially induce a difference in attention while searching for the targets, one group received a higher concentration of sucrose rewards compared to the other. During tests, the targets were presented with a series of lower contrasts to measure the contrast sensitivity curves of the bees induced by the different learnt reward levels. We predicted a stronger effect of any attention-like process on contrast sensitivity in the high reward group. We also repeated this experiment with the neonicotinoid pesticide imidacloprid dissolved in the sucrose rewards to test whether this affects bee attention. Across all test contrasts, higher rewards significantly increased bee accuracy when locating targets, lowered contrast thresholds and reduced the latency to make first choices. Imidacloprid reduced bee accuracy but did not influence first choice latency. These results suggest that learnt floral rewards can influence bee behavioural contrast sensitivity in a manner resembling vertebrate top-down attention and that imidacloprid may modulate this through effects on their nervous system.

Cruising speed is a key factor affecting prey-search efficiency and migration range in continuously swimming animals. Tunas and lamnid sharks (e.g., white sharks) have convergently evolved traits for high-speed cruising, including the ability to maintain slow-twitch, aerobic red muscle (RM) warmer than ambient water, known as RM endothermy. Despite their well-known high cruising speeds, kinematic features underlying their elevated speeds remain unclear. Swim speed is the product of tailbeat frequency (TBF; Hz) and stride length (SL, the absolute distance traveled per tailbeat; m). RM endothermy is expected to elevate TBF by enhancing muscle contraction performance. Furthermore, within RM-endothermic fishes, tunas and lamnid sharks may exhibit distinct kinematic features because of differences in caudal fin morphology and tailbeat amplitude. Here, we compiled kinematic parameters from 20 fish species, including five RM-endothermic species, measured in the wild using animal-borne sensors. Comparative analyses showed that, for a given body mass and water temperature, RM-endothermic fishes exhibited 1.9 times higher cruising speed and TBF than ectothermic fishes, while SL remained similar. Within RM-endothermic fishes, tunas exhibited 2.3 times higher TBF than similar-sized lamnid sharks, whereas lamnid sharks showed 1.7 times longer SL than similar-sized tunas. These results indicate that RM endothermy is generally associated with higher TBF, while significant kinematic differences remain between tunas and lamnid sharks. This divergence may be partly explained by the greater caudal fin area and tailbeat amplitude in lamnid sharks. It may also reflect contrasting skeletal types of teleosts and elasmobranchs, which potentially influence body stiffness and swimming kinematics.

While hamsters are commonly housed in groups within pet shops in Japan, small cages are often thought to restrict their physical activity, leading to arguments that larger cages should be provided. Although previous research has investigated how cage size and running wheel availability influence activity levels in individually housed hamsters, no studies to date have examined these specific effects in a social housing context. Therefore, this study investigated how cage size and the presence of a running wheel affect the activity levels of individual hamsters using the group-housing conditions with five hamsters. Video recordings were captured for 24 hours across four distinct cage environments using a camera installed directly above each cage. From these recordings, the distances traveled on both the cage floor and the running wheel were calculated for each hamster and statistically analyzed. The results revealed that overall activity levels were significantly higher in cages equipped with a running wheel than in those without. Although cage size did not yield a statistically significant difference, a marginal trend toward higher activity in larger cages was observed.

When individual preferences for collective outcomes diverge, cohesive animal groups often coalesce on the majority opinion. However, majority-based decision rules may be counterbalanced by other factors, particularly in heterogeneous groups with differentiated social relationships, and these factors could produce inequality in social influence. We used multi-sensor tracking collars to collect detailed and simultaneous data on the movements and vocalizations of almost all members of three wild white-nosed coati (Nasua narica) groups, and analyzed 2,401 individual decisions between conflicting travel directions. Decision-making was shared: individuals favored directions that had majority support, and we found evidence that they used acoustic signals and movement cues to infer majority support. Individuals were also more likely to choose directions favored by closer kin and by groupmates in more frontward spatial positions. Although decisions were shared, influence was not equally distributed across individuals. During directional conflicts, individuals who were more likely to form majorities or who were advantaged by frontward spatial positions had higher influence over travel direction. By explicitly linking decisions by individual followers to emergent patterns of influence among potential leaders, our results suggest that influence is a complex product of higher-order interactions that are likely dependent on group demography and socio-spatial structure.

This study investigates the impact temperature-induced vertebral anomalies have on the C-start escape response of Astyanax mexicanus, a model species in evolutionary developmental biology. Employing three temperature treatments to induce varying degrees of skeletal anomalies, we assessed their effects on key swimming performance metrics including, C-start time, curvature coefficient, head displacement distance, and displacement velocity. Through the use of linear mixed models and generalized linear mixed models, our results reveal that specific anomalies such as vertebral fusions and anomalous haemal and neural spines affected the curving ability of C-start escape responses. However, these did not negatively impact other performance parameters, with velocity, distance, and response time showing no significant impacts from any anomaly types, when assessed individually. This suggests a complex interplay between structural deformities and compensatory physiological mechanisms that maintain functional performance. Other variables measured had a stronger and significant impact on swimming performance, including standard length, vertebral number, and temperature treatment, which influenced escape speed, curving ability, and overall locomotor performance. Our findings challenge conventional perceptions about the debilitating impact of vertebral anomalies, indicating that many affected fish can still effectively perform escape maneuvers critical for survival.

Operant paradigms are powerful tools to quantify motivation and reward. Traditionally, operant conditioning research has been limited to food and drug reinforcers. Recent advances in commercially available operant equipment, however, allow for the quantification of social motivation. These operant assays are an improvement over commonly used social preference tasks, as they enable direct measurement of the effort and motivation driving social behavior. Based on a design by Venniro et al. (2020), the MedPC social operant boxes modify the traditional operant box setup for social interactions. The experimental rat can lever-press to raise a door for an interaction with a target rat behind a porous barrier. These social operant boxes have been widely adapted to test social behavior in adult and adolescent rodents and investigate how a range of conditions (e.g. stress, drug taking, etc.) affect social motivation. However, there is a gap in assessing maternal motivation for pups during the postpartum period, despite ample evidence that postpartum social behavior is highly relevant for offspring health outcomes. Here, we detail 3D-printed modifications to the standard Med PC social operant boxes to adapt the social target chamber to safely house neonatal pups. We have also developed testing protocols to assess motivation during the limited postpartum period. These data demonstrate that, with simple modifications to social operant chambers and testing protocols, the field can implement advanced behavioral approaches to directly assess maternal motivation.