In Space and Time: Territorial Animals are Attracted to Conspecific Chemical Cues

Abstract

Territorial animals lay scent marks around their territories to broadcast their presence, but these olfactory signals can both attract and repel con-specifics. Attraction or aversion can have a profound impact in terms of space use and thereby influence an individual’s access to resources and mates. Here, we test the impact of chemical signals on the long-term space use and activity of receivers, comparing the response of males and females, territory holders, and temporary visitors in Sceloporus undulatus lizards in the field. We placed either male femoral gland secretions (chemical) or blank (control) cues on resident male landmarks, repeatedly over 5 d, while monitoring the activity and location of all lizards in the vicinity. We found that resident males and females, but not non-resident males, were active on more days near landmarks treated with chemical cues than landmarks treated with control cues. Non-resident males remained closer to chemical than control cues. These results suggest that territorial scent marks are attractive to conspecifics and impact space use, but that the specific effects depend on receiver sex and residency status. Such subtle or gradual changes in behavior may frequently be overlooked by short-term choice experiments. Future studies investigating the behavioral significance of a communicative signal should consider these finer details of behavior for a more comprehensive assessment.

Chemical blindness in Liolaemus lizards is counterbalanced by visual signals, the case of two species with different communication modalities

“…Conspecifics chemical scents recognition is present in other Liolaemus species (Labra, 2008) and is common in other lizard genera (e.g., Cordylus, Cooper, van Wyk and Mouton, 1996;Podarcis, López and Martín, 2001;Psammodromus, Martín and López, 2006). Scent deposition and conspecific recognition are important for territorial interactions among lizards (Mason and Parker, 2010;Campos, Strauss and Martins, 2017). Inversely, L. albiceps performed few visual displays, in accordance with the observations of Bozzo Miranda (2014) on L. chiliensis, a Liolaemus lizard with pores in both sexes.…”

Chemosensory enrichment as a simple and effective way to improve the welfare of captive lizards

“…Future research should investigate other nuances of chemoreception and chemical stimuli, and their use in chemosensory enrichment. For example, previous studies have shown that some species of reptiles can gather information of territory ownership or assess the quality of territories based on conspecific cues, and that they are attracted to the latter (e.g., Campos, Strauss, & Martins, ; Carazo et al, ; Carazo et al, ; Stamps, ). It would be interesting to study the use of this type of stimuli (i.e., male conspecific's scents) in other territorial species of squamata.…”

Losing the trait without losing the signal: Evolutionary shifts in communicative colour signalling

“…Sceloporus species use femoral pore secretions for chemical signalling (e.g. Campos, Strauss, & Martins, ; Pruett et al., ), which may provide redundant information to belly colour patches. Chemical signals may also be used more often in species without coloured belly patches, as in S. virgatus , which seems to rely heavily on chemical signals (Hews & Benard, ; Hews, Date, Hara, & Castellano, ).…”