| Title: | Appeasing Pheromones for the Management of Stress and Aggression during Conservation of Wild Canids: Could the Solution Be Right under Our Nose? |
| Author(s): | Riddell P; Paris MCJ; Joone CJ; Pageat P; Paris D; |
| Address: | "Gamete and Embryology (GAME) Laboratory, College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, James Cook Drive, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia. Institute for Breeding Rare and Endangered African Mammals (IBREAM), 9 Ainslie Place, Edinburgh EH3 6AT SCT, UK. Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science, James Cook University, James Cook Drive, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia. Mammal Research Institute, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0028, South Africa. Discipline of Veterinary Science, College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Solander Drive, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia. Institut de Recherche en Semiochemie et Ethologie Appliquee, 84400 Apt, France" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 2076-2615 (Print) 2076-2615 (Electronic) 2076-2615 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Thirty-six species of canid exist globally, two are classified as critically endangered, three as endangered, and five as near threatened. Human expansion and the coinciding habitat fragmentation necessitate conservation interventions to mitigate concurrent population deterioration. The current conservation management of wild canids includes animal translocation and artificial pack formation. These actions often cause chronic stress, leading to increased aggression and the suppression of the immune and reproductive systems. Castration and pharmaceutical treatments are currently used to reduce stress and aggression in domestic and captive canids. The undesirable side effects make such treatments inadvisable during conservation management of wild canids. Pheromones are naturally occurring chemical messages that modulate behaviour between conspecifics; as such, they offer a natural alternative for behaviour modification. Animals are able to distinguish between pheromones of closely related species through small compositional differences but are more likely to have greater responses to pheromones from individuals of the same species. Appeasing pheromones have been found to reduce stress- and aggression-related behaviours in domestic species, including dogs. Preliminary evidence suggests that dog appeasing pheromones (DAP) may be effective in wild canids. However, the identification and testing of species-specific derivatives could produce more pronounced and beneficial behavioural and physiological changes in target species. In turn, this could provide a valuable tool to improve the conservation management of many endangered wild canids" |
| Keywords: | African wild dog aggression appeasing pheromone conservation immune suppression metapopulation management reproductive suppression stress wild canid wolf; |
| Notes: | "PubMed-not-MEDLINERiddell, Pia Paris, Monique C J Joone, Carolynne J Pageat, Patrick Paris, Damien B B P eng Review Switzerland 2021/06/03 Animals (Basel). 2021 May 27; 11(6):1574. doi: 10.3390/ani11061574" |
