Sensory involvement in the recognition of lambs by their dams

A T maze containing randomly allocated lambs in each ‘arm’ was used to examine the senses by which ewes recognized their lambs. When the mother of one lamb traversed the maze her repeated movement to the correct lamb indicated recognition of the lamb. Six ewes tested a total of 90 times, made seventy-six correct and fourteen incorrect choices. When the lambs were confined in sound-proof, glass-fronted cages and later in hessian covered open pens, the ratios of correct to incorrect choices were 60 to 30 and 45 to 45 respectively. Sight therefore appeared to be the main sense by which the ewes recognized their lambs but was probably supplemented by other sensory cues associated with direct contact. Attempts to examine sensory relationships in the recognition of ewes by their lambs established that recognition did exist but that the senses involved could not be isolated in the T maze.