Chemical signals of age, sex and identity in black rhinoceros

Linklater, Wayne L.; Mayer, Katharina; Swaisgood, Ronald R.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2012.12.034

Cited by 33 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…We know, for example, that some species can determine a depositor's identity (Porton, 1983), sex (Swaisgood, Lindburg, & Zhou, 1999), age (Linklater, Mayer, & Swaisgood, 2013), reproductive status (Converse, Carlson, Ziegler, & Snowdon, 1995), social status (Jones & Nowell, 1973), health (Zala, Potts, & Penn, 2004), quality (Charpentier, Crawford, Boulet, & Drea, 2010), kinship (Leclaire, Nielsen, Thavarajah, Manser, & Clutton-Brock, 2013) or histocompatibility (Penn & Potts, 1999). There is also considerable evidence that mark density, refreshment rate and distribution (relative to others' marks) provide critical information about a depositor's competitive ability (Ferkin, Hobbs, Ferkin, Ferkin, & Ferkin, 2011;Gosling & Roberts, 2001;Johnston, Chaing, & Tung, 1994;Rich & Hurst, 1999).…”

mentioning

confidence: 93%

Handstand scent marking: height matters to dwarf mongooses

Sharpe

2015

Animal Behaviour

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confidence: 93%

Handstand scent marking: height matters to dwarf mongooses

Sharpe

2015

Animal Behaviour

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“…Feces are used as source of chemical cues in several animals. For example, black rhinoceros are able to identify age, sex and identity of conspecifics, and this signal can persist as dung decays, being important in social and spatial organization (Linklater, Mayer, & Swaisgood, 2013). In wolves, there are chemical differences in the composition of the scent constituents in feces between adults and puppies that may allow discrimination of both age classes and reflect differences in social behavior as puppies do not mark territories (Martín, Barja, & López, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemosensory discrimination of male age by female Psammodromus algirus lizards based on femoral secretions and feces

et al. 2019

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Chemical communication plays an essential role in several social and reproductive behaviors of many animals. In lizards, the main sources of semiochemicals are femoral or pre‐anal gland secretions and feces. In male lizards Psammodromus algirus, there are age‐related differences in the chemical composition of femoral gland secretions and in the reproductive strategies, with older males defending territories and females, while younger males adopting sneak‐mating strategies. Females flee more often from mating advances of young males than from those of old males, which are more successful in obtaining matings. This suggests that age discrimination of males may be important for females. We tested here whether females showed differential chemosensory responses to chemical cues (femoral gland secretion and feces) of males of two age classes, and whether females use information from substrate scent marks of males of different ages to select where to stay. We found that females elicited more tongue‐flicks to the secretion and feces of old males than to control or secretion and feces of young males. Also, the time spent by females on a scented paper depended on the treatment, suggesting that females tended to spend more time on scent marks made with femoral secretions of old males. Adult females seemed capable to discriminate between young and old males based on chemical cues alone and showed more interest in scents of old males. However, substrate scent marks did not seem to entirely determine site selection by females, suggesting that females might need additional cues to perform the choice. These results can be explained by the different age‐dependent reproductive strategies of males, which can affect differentially to females.

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“…For example, many vocalizations encode information about identity, age, and sex, such as alarm calls of yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventri, Blumstein and Munos, 2005) or bleats of giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca, Charlton et al, 2009). Scent marks also frequently contain multiple tiers of social information, as has been shown for black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis, Linklater et al, 2013) and house mice (Mus musculus, Hurst and Beynon, 2004;Sheehan et al, 2019). The role that populations of receivers play in shaping these signals by responding to different levels of social information in these signals simultaneously is very much an open question.…”

Section: Consequences For Sendersmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Drives Diversity in Social Recognition Mechanisms?

Tumulty

Sheehan

2020

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Recognition allows animals to categorize social partners and differentiate among them in adaptive ways. Recognition systems are a fundamental component of social interactions, and a major goal for behavioral and evolutionary ecology is to understand the factors that influence the diversity of traits involved in social recognition across species and contexts. Here we argue that recognition is best understood as the interaction between a population of diverse senders and receivers with different perspectives and experiences. Receivers vary in the extent to which they agree on the category membership of senders and this variation is a key parameter that may explain the diverse evolutionary pressures shaping recognition systems. High receiver agreement (e.g., sex recognition) should favor uniformity in signals and innate recognition templates in receivers, while low receiver agreement (e.g., neighbor recognition) should tend to favor diversity in signals and flexible learning in receivers. Further, variation in how specifically receivers categorize senders may constrain the evolution of signals that need to function for multiple audiences. It remains an open question how receivers integrate multiple signals of different types of social categories. By framing recognition systems in a population context we hope this perspective will help spur new efforts to model and empirically investigate the mechanisms underlying the diversity of recognition systems across animals.

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Chemical signals of age, sex and identity in black rhinoceros

Cited by 33 publications

References 36 publications

Handstand scent marking: height matters to dwarf mongooses

Handstand scent marking: height matters to dwarf mongooses

Chemosensory discrimination of male age by female Psammodromus algirus lizards based on femoral secretions and feces

What Drives Diversity in Social Recognition Mechanisms?

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