Riddell Pia, Paris Monique C J, Joonè Carolynne J, Pageat Patrick, Paris Damien B B P
Gamete and Embryology (GAME) Laboratory, College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, James Cook Drive, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia.
Institute for Breeding Rare and Endangered African Mammals (IBREAM), 9 Ainslie Place, Edinburgh EH3 6AT SCT, UK.
Animals (Basel). 2021 May 27;11(6):1574. doi: 10.3390/ani11061574.
Thirty-six species of canid exist globally, two are classified as critically endangered, three as endangered, and five as near threatened. Human expansion and the coinciding habitat fragmentation necessitate conservation interventions to mitigate concurrent population deterioration. The current conservation management of wild canids includes animal translocation and artificial pack formation. These actions often cause chronic stress, leading to increased aggression and the suppression of the immune and reproductive systems. Castration and pharmaceutical treatments are currently used to reduce stress and aggression in domestic and captive canids. The undesirable side effects make such treatments inadvisable during conservation management of wild canids. Pheromones are naturally occurring chemical messages that modulate behaviour between conspecifics; as such, they offer a natural alternative for behaviour modification. Animals are able to distinguish between pheromones of closely related species through small compositional differences but are more likely to have greater responses to pheromones from individuals of the same species. Appeasing pheromones have been found to reduce stress- and aggression-related behaviours in domestic species, including dogs. Preliminary evidence suggests that dog appeasing pheromones (DAP) may be effective in wild canids. However, the identification and testing of species-specific derivatives could produce more pronounced and beneficial behavioural and physiological changes in target species. In turn, this could provide a valuable tool to improve the conservation management of many endangered wild canids.
全球共有36种犬科动物,其中2种被列为极度濒危,3种为濒危,5种为近危。人类扩张以及随之而来的栖息地破碎化使得有必要采取保护措施来缓解同时出现的种群衰退。目前对野生犬科动物的保护管理包括动物迁移和人工组建群体。这些行为常常会导致慢性应激,进而增加攻击性,并抑制免疫和生殖系统。目前阉割和药物治疗被用于减轻家养和圈养犬科动物的应激和攻击性。这些不良副作用使得在对野生犬科动物进行保护管理时,这些治疗方法并不可取。信息素是调节同种个体间行为的天然化学信号;因此,它们为行为改变提供了一种天然的替代方法。动物能够通过微小的成分差异区分亲缘关系较近物种的信息素,但它们对同一物种个体的信息素反应可能更强烈。已发现安抚信息素可减少包括狗在内的家养动物与应激和攻击相关的行为。初步证据表明,犬用安抚信息素(DAP)可能对野生犬科动物有效。然而,识别和测试物种特异性衍生物可能会在目标物种中产生更显著且有益的行为和生理变化。相应地,这可为改善许多濒危野生犬科动物的保护管理提供一个有价值的工具。