Lewis Rebecca J
Department of Anthropology, University of Texas-Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.
Am J Primatol. 2006 Jun;68(6):622-36. doi: 10.1002/ajp.20256.
Various hypotheses to explain possible functions of scent-marking have been put forth and basically fall into five categories: territorial demarcation, ownership of resources, mate attraction, noncombative fighting, and self-advertisement. Verreaux's sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi verreauxi), like many prosimians, use scent-marking as one form of communication. The goal of this study was to determine the function of scent-marking in sifaka. All-occurrence of scent-marks, scent-mark context, and scent-mark style were collected on 23 sifaka in the Kirindy Forest of western Madagascar for 7 months (September 2001-March 2002). Scent-mark rates were collected using continuous focal animal sampling from November 2000-March 2002. Home range data were collected using monthly censuses and instantaneous focal sampling throughout the 17 months. Scent-marking behavior was exhibited almost exclusively by adults. Scent-mark rates were not related to the number of resident adult males, number of resident adult females, rank, or group size. The majority of scent-marks occurred in the perimeter of the home range; however, less than a quarter of the home range was used by only a single group. Sifaka did not preferentially mark food trees, mark during the mating season, or mark during intergroup encounters. The results from this study indicate that none of the five hypothesized functions best explains all scent-marking in Verreaux's sifaka. Rather, scent-marking may serve different functions for different individuals.
人们已经提出了各种假设来解释气味标记可能具有的功能，这些假设基本可分为五类：领地划分、资源所有权、吸引配偶、非攻击性争斗和自我宣传。维氏冕狐猴（Propithecus verreauxi verreauxi）和许多原猴亚目动物一样，将气味标记作为一种交流方式。本研究的目的是确定气味标记在冕狐猴中的功能。在马达加斯加西部基林迪森林中，对23只冕狐猴进行了为期7个月（2001年9月至2002年3月）的气味标记出现情况、气味标记背景和气味标记方式的收集。从2000年11月至2002年3月，采用连续焦点动物取样法收集气味标记率。在整个17个月期间，通过每月普查和瞬时焦点取样收集家域数据。气味标记行为几乎只在成年个体中出现。气味标记率与成年雄性个体数量、成年雌性个体数量、等级或群体大小无关。大多数气味标记出现在家域周边；然而，只有不到四分之一的家域被单个群体使用。冕狐猴不会优先标记食物树、在交配季节进行标记或在群体间相遇时进行标记。本研究结果表明，五个假设功能中的任何一个都不能很好地解释维氏冕狐猴的所有气味标记行为。相反，气味标记可能对不同个体具有不同的功能。
