De Boer J N
Laboratory of Animal Physiology, Kruislaan 320, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Behav Processes. 1977 Nov;2(3):209-25. doi: 10.1016/0376-6357(77)90026-2.
In a simulated open-field situation we tried to obtain information about the ability of tomcats to distinguish between urine marks of differing ages. Reactions to these marks were sniffing, sniffing intensively and "Flehmen". The variables we chose to demonstrate a possible discriminatory ability between urine marks of different ages were: (1) latency, i.e. the time that elapses between the cat's release in the observation arena and the finding of a urine mark, (2) the number of occurrences of Flehmen after sniffing, (3) the frequency of sniffing and Flehmen, (4) the duration of the first sniffing bout and (5) the occurrence of a return to the same scent source during an observation. Our most striking observation was that fresh urine marks (maximum age, 4 hours) were explored first, before marks more than one day old; the other variables did not differ dramatically although we observed a general decline in the intensity of the reaction with increasing age of the urine marks. We also found that the visual characteristics of a urine mark play an important role, particularly in the occurrence of returns. Furthermore we found that the reactions of sniffing and Flehmen are linked with an attempt to identify the donor. All results, including the possible influence upon marking behaviour of the presence or absence of fresh marks, are discussed in the light of the use of a "time plan" spacing mechanism by the domestic tomcat as had been suggested in earlier literature.
在模拟的旷场情境中，我们试图获取有关成年雄猫区分不同年龄尿液标记能力的信息。对这些标记的反应包括嗅闻、强烈嗅闻和“裂唇嗅反应”。我们选择用来证明对不同年龄尿液标记可能存在辨别能力的变量有：（1）潜伏期，即猫在观察区域被释放到发现尿液标记之间所经过的时间；（2）嗅闻后出现裂唇嗅反应的次数；（3）嗅闻和裂唇嗅反应的频率；（4）首次嗅闻回合的持续时间；（5）观察期间是否回到同一气味源。我们最显著的观察结果是，新鲜尿液标记（最大年龄为4小时）在超过一天的标记之前首先被探索；尽管我们观察到随着尿液标记年龄的增加反应强度总体下降，但其他变量没有显著差异。我们还发现尿液标记的视觉特征起着重要作用，特别是在回到同一标记的情况中。此外，我们发现嗅闻和裂唇嗅反应与试图识别尿液标记提供者有关。根据早期文献中提出的家猫使用“时间计划”间隔机制，对所有结果进行了讨论，包括新鲜标记的存在或不存在对标记行为可能产生的影响。
