Developmental Plasticity and Behavioural Evolution in Rodents: Insights From African Striped Mice (Rhabdomys)

Abstract

Early-life environments can shape behavioural development trajectories without altering DNA. In this review, we consider how non-genetic factors, particularly parental care, shape behavioural development in rodents, using African striped mice (Rhabdomys) as our primary model. The Rhabdomys system is particularly informative because it encompasses a natural gradient from solitary to group-living strategies, demonstrates marked social plasticity and combines field observations with laboratory experimental manipulations. Long-term studies of Rhabdomys, integrated with broader rodent research including laboratory rats, mice and voles, reveal that early parental care creates lasting changes in sociality, stress physiology, cognition and reproductive behaviour. These changes are mediated through epigenetic, hormonal and neuroendocrine mechanisms that can persist across generations. We frame this review within Developmental Systems Theory (DST), which considers development as the emergent dynamic interplay of genes, environment and experience. Maternal care, via tactile stimulation, diet and social context, forms the primary basis of early caregiving, while paternal and communal care contribute significantly to development in biparental and group-living species. Cross-fostering and isolation experiments demonstrate that caregiving can modify developmental trajectories independent of genetic inheritance. This plasticity enables behavioural adjustments to local ecological conditions; when outcomes are adaptive and transgenerationally stable, caregiving itself becomes a target of selection. Understanding developmental plasticity as an evolutionary force, rather than noise around a genetic mean, improves our ability to predict behavioural trajectories under environmental change. This framework has direct applications in conservation biology, captive breeding programmes and perinatal medicine. Because these developmental mechanisms are conserved across vertebrates, rodent studies provide broad insights into how plasticity in caregiving contributes to rapid behavioural evolution.