Female-Based Patterns and Social Function in Avian Chemical Communication

Attraction to Smelly Food in Birds: Insectivorous Birds Discriminate between the Pheromones of Their Prey and Those of Non-Prey Insects

“…Despite the fact that the role of olfaction in avian life histories has traditionally been neglected, a growing body of evidence suggests that birds use olfaction in different biological contexts. At the intraspecific level (see [2,3] for reviews), evidence has shown that birds use olfaction to recognize their nest [4][5][6] and eggs [7]. Chemical cues also seem to play a role in parent [8,9] and sibling recognition [10].…”

Males are more sensitive to their audience than females when scent-marking in the redfronted lemur

“…Scent marking behaviours have been associated with various functions, both across [16][17][18][19] and within species [20][21][22][23] . They can be classified into three broad functional categories: sexual attraction, competition, and parental care [16][17][18][19]24 .…”

“…Scent marking behaviours have been associated with various functions, both across [16][17][18][19] and within species [20][21][22][23] . They can be classified into three broad functional categories: sexual attraction, competition, and parental care [16][17][18][19]24 . For instance, in rodents, female secretions play a role in coordinating reproduction with males, suppressing reproduction in other females, territory advertisement and defence, as well as in maternal care 18 .…”

“…These functional differences are usually associated with morphological, physiological and behavioural differences. Sex differences in the glandular structure and the frequency of scent-marking behaviours are indeed common 13,19,20,23,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] . The balance of investment in chemical signalling and scents' deployment across sexes seems to be influenced by the species' social system.…”

“…The balance of investment in chemical signalling and scents' deployment across sexes seems to be influenced by the species' social system. For instance, male-biased dimorphism is often reduced in monogamous species, and femalebiased dimorphism occurs in species with high levels of female competition 16,19,[39][40][41] . However, only very few studies investigated how a species' social system influences scent-marking behaviours and functionality [42][43][44] .…”