Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology Unit, German Primate Center GmbH-Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany.
Cognitive Ethology Lab, German Primate Center GmbH-Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2022 Mar 28;12(1):5266. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-08861-2.
How the presence of conspecifics affects scent mark deposition remains an understudied aspect of olfactory communication, even though scent marking occurs in different social contexts. Sex differences in scent-marking behaviour are common, and sex-specific effects of the audience could therefore be expected. We investigated sex differences in intra-group audience effects on anogenital scent marking in four groups of wild red-fronted lemurs (Eulemur rufifrons) by performing focal scent-marking observations. We observed a total of 327 events divided into 223 anogenital scent-marking events and 104 pass-by events (i.e. passage without scent marking). Using a combination of generalised linear mixed models and exponential random graph models, we found that scent marking in red-fronted lemurs is associated with some behavioural flexibility linked to the composition of the audience at the time of scent deposition. In particular, our study revealed sex differences in the audience effects, with males being overall more sensitive to their audience than females. Moreover, we show that these audience effects were dependent on the relative degree of social integration of the focal individual compared to that of individuals in the audience (difference in Composite Sociality Index) as well as the strength of the dyadic affiliative relationship (rank of Dyadic Composite Sociality Index within the group). The audience effects also varied as a function of the audience radius considered. Hence, we showed that scent marking in red-fronted lemurs is associated with some behavioural flexibility linked to the composition of the audience, ascribing red-fronted lemurs' social competence in this context.
尽管气味标记发生在不同的社会环境中，但同种动物的存在如何影响气味标记的沉积仍然是一个研究不足的嗅觉交流方面。气味标记行为存在明显的性别差异，因此可以预期观众存在性别特异性影响。我们通过进行焦点气味标记观察，研究了野生红额狐猴（Eulemur rufifrons）四个群体中群体内观众对肛门气味标记的性别差异。我们总共观察到 327 个事件，分为 223 个肛门气味标记事件和 104 个经过事件（即没有气味标记的经过）。使用广义线性混合模型和指数随机图模型的组合，我们发现红额狐猴的气味标记与一些与气味沉积时观众组成有关的行为灵活性有关。特别是，我们的研究表明，观众效应存在性别差异，雄性总体上比雌性对观众更敏感。此外，我们表明，这些观众效应取决于焦点个体与观众中个体的社会融合程度（综合社会性指数的差异）以及对偶关系的强度（群体内对偶综合社会性指数的等级）。观众效应还随着所考虑的观众半径而变化。因此，我们表明，红额狐猴的气味标记与一些与观众组成有关的行为灵活性有关，这赋予了红额狐猴在这种情况下的社交能力。
