Detective mice assess relatedness in baboons using olfactory cues

Abstract

SUMMARY The assessment of relatedness may be crucial in the evolution of socio-sexual behaviour, because it can be associated with fitness benefits mediated by both nepotism and inbreeding avoidance. In this context, one proposed mechanism for kin recognition is ‘phenotype matching’; animals might compare phenotypic similarities between themselves and others in order to assess the probability that they are related. Among cues potentially used for kin discrimination, body odours constitute interesting candidates that have been poorly investigated in anthropoid primates so far, because of a mixture of theoretical considerations and methodological/experimental constraints. In this study, we used an indirect approach to examine the similarity in odour signals emitted by related individuals from a natural population of chacma baboons (Papio ursinus). For that purpose, we designed an innovative behavioural tool using mice olfactory abilities in a habituation–discrimination paradigm. We show that: (i) mice can detect odour differences between individuals of same sex and age class in another mammal species, and (ii) mice perceive a higher odour similarity between related baboons than between unrelated baboons. These results suggest that odours may play a role in both the signalling of individual characteristics and of relatedness among individuals in an anthropoid primate. The ‘biological olfactometer’ developed in this study offers new perspectives to the exploration of olfactory signals from a range of species.

The hidden benefits of sex: Evidence for MHC‐associated mate choice in primate societies

“…Many cues reflect relatedness in non-human primates, including visual appearance [39], vocalisations [40] and odours [41,42] and exciting new findings suggest that both human [43] and non-human primates [44] may use such cues in kin discrimination. Some evidence suggests that choice for MHC dissimilarity may not simply result from inbreeding avoidance based on alternative cues (due to correlations between MHC and genome-wide dissimilarity).…”

Visual Phenotype Matching: Cues to Paternity Are Present in Rhesus Macaque Faces

“…A variety of phenotypic traits may be used. For example olfactory cues are a commonly used mechanism in many rodents [33], and their importance is now gaining recognition in primates [34], [35]. In humans, visual phenotype matching has been reported.…”

Development of children’s ability to detect kinship through facial resemblance

“…The ability to assess genetic relatedness (i.e., kin recognition) has been evidenced in several types of living organisms, from plants and social amoebas to invertebrates, vertebrates, and humans. However, the ability to detect kinship relationships in other unrelated and unfamiliar individuals (labelled here as ''allocentric kinship detection'', see Dal Martello and Maloney 2010) is little studied, and has been shown in humans (e.g., through odors, Alvergne et al 2009a; and through faces, Kaminski et al 2009), non-human primates (through faces, Parr and de Waal 1999;Parr et al 2010) and mammals (through odors, e.g., Ables et al 2007;Célérier et al 2010). Allocentric kinship detection ability has been assumed to be adaptive (Lieberman et al 2008), as it may orient social behavior and ultimately enhance reproductive success (e.g., in non-human primates, Wittig et al 2007).…”