Variations in scent-marking behaviour of European badgersMeles meles in the vicinity of their setts

Buesching, Christina D.; Macdonald, David W.

doi:10.1007/bf03192523

Cited by 24 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…ferret (Chang et al 2000; red panda, Ailurus fulgens, (Roberts and Kessler 1979), and ringtailed coati, Nasua nasua (Shannon et al 1995) is typically linked to the species' reproductive cycle. In badgers, patterns in scent-marking activity (Buesching and Macdonald 2004), as well as the chemical characteristics of subcaudal (Buesching et al 2002) and anal gland secretions (present study), reflect the seasonal sex-steroid patterns of badgers Sugianto et al 2019) with significantly higher scent-marking activity (Buesching and Macdonald 2004) and latrine usage (Buesching et al 2016) during the mating and cub-rearing season in late winter/spring.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Knowing Me, Knowing You: Anal Gland Secretion of European Badgers (Meles meles) Codes for Individuality, Sex and Social Group Membership

et al. 2019

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European badgers, Meles meles, are group-living in the UK, and demarcate their ranges with shared latrines. As carnivores, badgers possess paired anal glands, but olfactory information on the content of badger anal gland secretion (AGS) is largely uninvestigated. Here, we examined the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of AGS samples from 57 free-living badgers using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. AGS was rich in alkanes (C7-C15, 14.3% of identified compounds), aldehydes (C5-C14, 9.7%), phenols (C6-C15, 9.5%), alcohols (C5-C10, 7.3%), aromatic hydrocarbons (C6-C13, 6.8%), ketones (C6-C13, 6.3%) and carboxylic acids (C3-C12, 5.6%) and contained a variety of esters, sulfurous and nitrogenous compounds, and ethers. The number of VOCs per profile ranged from 20 to 111 (mean = 65.4; ± 22.7 SD), but no compound was unique for any of the biological categories. After normalization of the raw data using Probabilistic Quotient Normalization, we produced a resemblance matrix by calculating the Euclidian distances between all sample pairs. PERMANOVA revealed that AGS composition differs between social groups, and concentration and complexity in terms of number of measurable VOCs varies between seasons and years. AGS VOC profiles encode individual identity, sex and vary with female reproductive state, indicating an important function in intraspecific communication. Because AGS is excreted together with fecal deposits, we conclude that chemical complexity of AGS enables particularly latrine-using species, such as badgers, to advertise more complex individual-specific information than in feces alone.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Knowing Me, Knowing You: Anal Gland Secretion of European Badgers (Meles meles) Codes for Individuality, Sex and Social Group Membership

et al. 2019

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“…Some badger latrines are known to be near badger setts but especially in areas with high badger densities some may function in territorial marking and lie along territory borders (e.g. Kruuk, 1978;Woodroffe and Macdonald, 1992;Roper et al, 1986Roper et al, , 1993Buesching and Macdonald, 2004;Delahay et al, 2007). No studies of raccoon dog or badger latrines in Finland have been published but to our own experience, when working without dogs, most latrines of both species are found near the dens sites.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Does a non-invasive method – latrine surveys – reveal habitat preferences of raccoon dogs and badgers?

Kauhala¹,

Salonen²

2012

Mammalian Biology

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a b s t r a c tWe aimed to examine whether habitat preferences of raccoon dogs Nyctereutes procyonoides and badgers Meles meles can be revealed by using a non-invasive method, latrine surveys. We searched for latrines of these carnivores with scat detection dogs in SW Finland. We compared the results of latrine surveys with the results of a radio-tracking study conducted simultaneously in the same area. Our results showed that latrine surveys and radio-tracking gave fairly similar results: both methods revealed that raccoon dogs favoured deciduous forests, open woodland and reed beds but avoided fields, and badgers favoured deciduous and pine forests but avoided fields, gardens and reed beds. Latrines of both species were often located in the core areas but also along home range borders. Latrine survey revealed possible competition for space between the native badgers and alien raccoon dogs. Latrine survey is a non-invasive method, which gives accurate location points of animals. It could be developed further by combining it with bait-marking and by training the dogs to show us other signs of animals besides latrines.

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“…By contrast, studies on mammal chemical signals have been directed at exploring the varying numbers and types of components within the chemical blend. For example, chemical extracts from the sub‐caudal glands of the European badger, Meles meles, are highly varied across individuals providing each with a unique chemical signature (Buesching & Macdonald, 2004; Buesching, Waterhouse & Macdonald, 2002 a ). Similar patterns are observed in chemical secretions produced by the shrew Crocidura russula (Cantoni et al , 1996) and several species of deer (Lawson, Putman & Fielding, 2000).…”

Section: Key Criteria For Mate Assessment Pheromonesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of chemical communication in mate choice

2007

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Chemical signals are omnipresent in sexual communication in the vast majority of living organisms. The traditional paradigm was that their main purpose in sexual behaviour was to coordinate mate and species recognition and thus pheromones were conserved in structure and function. In recent years, this view has been challenged by theoretical analyses on the evolution of pheromones and empirical reports of mate choice based on chemical signals. The ability to measure precisely the quantity and quality of chemicals emitted by single individuals has also revealed considerable individual variation in chemical composition and release rates, and there is mounting evidence that prospecting mates respond to this variation. Here, we review the evidence for pheromones as indicators of mate quality and examine the extent of their use in individual mate assessment. We begin by briefly defining the levels of mate choice--species recognition, mate recognition and mate assessment. We then explore the degree to which pheromones satisfy the key criteria necessary for their evolution and maintenance as cues in mate assessment; that is, they should exhibit variation across individuals within a sex and species; they should honestly reflect an individual's quality and thus be costly to produce and/or maintain; they should display relatively high levels of heritability. There is now substantial empirical evidence that pheromones can satisfy all these criteria and, while measurements of the actual metabolic cost of pheromone production remain to some degree lacking, trade-offs between pheromone production and various fitness-related characters such as growth rate, immunocompetence and longevity have been reported for a range of species. In the penultimate section, we outline the growing number of studies where the consequences of chemical-based mate assessment have been investigated, specifically focussing on the reported direct and genetic benefits accrued by the receiver. Finally, we highlight potential areas for future research and in particular emphasise the need for interdisciplinary research that combines exploration of chemical, physiological and behavioural processes to further our understanding of the role of chemical cues in mate assessment.

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Variations in scent-marking behaviour of European badgersMeles meles in the vicinity of their setts

Cited by 24 publications

References 46 publications

Knowing Me, Knowing You: Anal Gland Secretion of European Badgers (Meles meles) Codes for Individuality, Sex and Social Group Membership

Knowing Me, Knowing You: Anal Gland Secretion of European Badgers (Meles meles) Codes for Individuality, Sex and Social Group Membership

Does a non-invasive method – latrine surveys – reveal habitat preferences of raccoon dogs and badgers?

The role of chemical communication in mate choice

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