Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2012;7(2):e32002. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0032002. Epub 2012 Feb 29.
Scent marking can provide behavioral and physiological information including territory ownership and mate advertisement. It is unknown how mating status and pair cohabitation influence marking by males from different social systems. We compared the highly territorial and monogamous California mouse (Peromyscus californicus) to the less territorial and promiscuous white-footed mouse (P. leucopus). Single and mated males of both species were assigned to one of the following arenas lined with filter paper: control (unscented arena), male scented (previously scent-marked by a male conspecific), or females present (containing females in small cages). As expected, the territorial P. californicus scent marked and overmarked an unfamiliar male conspecific's scent marks more frequently than P. leucopus. Species differences in responses to novel females were also found based on mating status. The presence of unfamiliar females failed to induce changes in scent marking in pair bonded P. californicus even though virgin males increased marking behavior. Pair bonding appears to reduce male advertisement for novel females. This is in contrast to P. leucopus males that continue to advertise regardless of mating status. Our data suggest that communication through scent-marking can diverge significantly between species based on mating system and that there are physiological mechanisms that can inhibit responsiveness of males to female cues.
气味标记可以提供行为和生理信息，包括领地所有权和配偶广告。交配状态和配偶同居如何影响来自不同社会系统的雄性的标记尚不清楚。我们比较了高度领地性和一夫一妻制的加州鼠（Peromyscus californicus）和领地性较低且滥交的白足鼠（P. leucopus）。两种物种的单身和交配雄性被分配到以下带有滤纸的竞技场之一：对照（无气味竞技场）、雄性气味（以前被同种雄性标记过）或雌性存在（包含小笼子里的雌性）。正如预期的那样，具有领地性的 P. californicus 比 P. leucopus 更频繁地标记和过度标记不熟悉的雄性同种的气味标记。基于交配状态，还发现了对新雌性的反应的种间差异。即使是未交配的雄性增加了标记行为，陌生雌性的存在也未能诱导配对绑定的 P. californicus 的气味标记发生变化。配对绑定似乎减少了雄性对新雌性的广告宣传。这与 P. leucopus 雄性形成对比，无论交配状态如何，它们都会继续宣传。我们的数据表明，基于交配系统，通过气味标记进行的交流在物种之间可能会有很大差异，并且存在可以抑制雄性对雌性线索反应的生理机制。
