Martín José, López Pilar
Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, CSIC, José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, E-28006 Madrid, Spain.
Behav Processes. 2013 Mar;94:109-14. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2013.01.002. Epub 2013 Jan 14.
Scent-marked substrates may inform conspecifics on the characteristics of territorial males. Scent-marks of male Carpetan rock lizards (Iberolacerta cyreni) affect space use of females, which by selecting an area may increase the probability of mating with the male that has scent-marked that area. However, males do not hold exclusive territories, and scent-marks of different individual males are often together. This may provide complex information from multiple sources on the social structure. Here, we examined female preference in response to scent marks of various males and combinations in a laboratory experiment. Females preferred areas scent-marked by territorial old males against those scent-marked by young satellite-sneaker males. This reflected the known preference of females for mating with old males. In a second experiment, females preferred areas scent-marked by two males to areas of similar size marked by a single male. This may increase the probability of obtaining multiple copulations with different males, which may favour sperm competition and cryptic female choice, or may be a way to avoid infertile males. Finally, when we experimentally over-marked the scent-marks of an old male with scent-marks of a young male, females did not avoid, nor prefer, the over-marked area, suggesting that the quality of the old male may override the presence of a satellite male. We suggest that, irrespective of the causes underlying why a female selects a scent-marked area, this strategy may affect her reproductive success, which may have the same evolutionary consequences that "direct" mate choice decisions of other animals.
带有气味标记的底物可能会向同种个体传达领地雄性的特征。卡佩塔岩蜥（Iberolacerta cyreni）雄性的气味标记会影响雌性的空间利用，雌性通过选择一个区域可能会增加与在该区域留下气味标记的雄性交配的概率。然而，雄性并不拥有独占的领地，不同个体雄性的气味标记常常相互交织。这可能会从多个来源提供关于社会结构的复杂信息。在此，我们在实验室实验中研究了雌性对各种雄性气味标记及其组合的偏好。雌性更喜欢由领地性的老年雄性留下气味标记的区域，而不是由年轻的卫星偷腥雄性留下气味标记的区域。这反映了雌性已知的与老年雄性交配的偏好。在第二个实验中，雌性更喜欢由两个雄性留下气味标记的区域，而不是由单个雄性标记的大小相似的区域。这可能会增加与不同雄性进行多次交配的概率，这可能有利于精子竞争和雌性的隐秘选择，或者可能是一种避免与不育雄性交配的方式。最后，当我们用年轻雄性的气味标记在实验中覆盖老年雄性的气味标记时，雌性既不避开也不偏好被覆盖的区域，这表明老年雄性的质量可能会超越卫星雄性的存在。我们认为，无论雌性选择有气味标记区域的潜在原因是什么，这种策略可能会影响她的繁殖成功率，这可能会产生与其他动物“直接”配偶选择决策相同的进化后果。
