| Title: | "Sternal Gland Scent-Marking Signals Sex, Age, Rank, and Group Identity in Captive Mandrills" |
| Author(s): | Vaglio S; Minicozzi P; Romoli R; Boscaro F; Pieraccini G; Moneti G; Moggi-Cecchi J; |
| Address: | "Department of Anthropology & Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution Research Centre, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK, School of Biology, Chemistry and Forensic Science, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton WV1 1LY, UK, Laboratory of Anthropology, Department of Biology, Florence University, Florence 50122, Italy, stefano.vaglio@durham.ac.uk. Analytical Epidemiology and Health Impact Unit, Department of Preventive and Predictive Medicine, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan 20133, Italy and. Mass Spectrometry Center (CISM), Florence University, Florence 50139, Italy. Laboratory of Anthropology, Department of Biology, Florence University, Florence 50122, Italy" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1464-3553 (Electronic) 0379-864X (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Mandrills are one of the few Old World primates to show scent-marking. We combined ethological and chemical approaches to improve our understanding of this behavior in 3 zoo-managed groups. We observed the olfactory behavior performed by adults and adolescents (N = 39) for 775h. We investigated the volatile components of sternal scent-marks using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and compared volatile profiles with traits of the signaler. Males marked more than females and within each sex the frequency of scent-marking was related to age and dominance status, but alpha males scent-marked most frequently and particularly in specific areas at the enclosure boundaries. We identified a total of 77 volatile components of sternal gland secretion, including compounds functioning as male sex pheromones in other mammals, in scent-marks spontaneously released on filter paper by 27 male and 18 female mandrills. We confirmed our previous findings that chemical profiles contain information including sex, male age and rank, and we also found that odor may encode information about group membership in mandrills. Our results support the hypotheses that scent-marking signals the status of the dominant male as well as playing territorial functions but also suggest that it is part of sociosexual communication" |
| Keywords: | "Age Factors *Aging *Animal Communication Animals Animals, Zoo/*physiology Female Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Group Processes *Hierarchy, Social Male Mandrillus/*physiology *Odorants Scent Glands/*metabolism Sex Factors Territoriality Mandrillus s;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineVaglio, Stefano Minicozzi, Pamela Romoli, Riccardo Boscaro, Francesca Pieraccini, Giuseppe Moneti, Gloriano Moggi-Cecchi, Jacopo eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2015/12/29 Chem Senses. 2016 Feb; 41(2):177-86. doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjv077. Epub 2015 Dec 26" |
