Animal Behaviour & Wildlife Conservation Group, School of Life Sciences, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, England, WV1 1LY, UK.
University College-The Castle, Durham University, Durham, England, UK.
F1000Res. 2024 Feb 19;13:123. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.144636.1. eCollection 2024.
Zoos use environmental enrichments, including scents, which may have applications to improve breeding success for taxa, such as lemurs, which rely heavily on olfactory communication. We aimed to develop novel, biologically-relevant scent enrichments to trigger mating behaviours of zoo-housed lemur species, which are critically endangered in the wild and show a low success rate in captive breeding programmes.
We examined anogenital odour secretions, released by female gentle ( ) and ruffed ( ) lemurs, using solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry techniques. We identified the key compounds distinguishing the volatile chemical profile of female lemurs during the breeding season and used them to develop species-specific scent enrichments. We then tested the scent enrichments, made up of synthesized mixtures conveying information about female lemur fertility, on unsuccessful breeding pairs of lemurs hosted in European zoos. We evaluated the effects of the newly designed scent enrichments on their target species by combining behavioural observations with faecal endocrinology.
We identified and reproduced fertility-specific signals associated with female scents. These scent mixtures triggered male sexual behaviours, including mating, during and after the enrichment condition. We also found effects on faecal testosterone levels, with increased levels after the enrichment condition albeit not statistically significant.
Our findings suggest that biologically-relevant scent enrichments may trigger natural species-specific behaviours, with potential implications for conservation breeding of zoo-based endangered lemur species, and highlight that combining more assessment methods may assist with evaluating the impact of environmental enrichments.
动物园使用环境丰容物，包括气味，这可能有助于提高像狐猴这样严重依赖嗅觉交流的物种的繁殖成功率。我们旨在开发新颖的、具有生物学相关性的气味丰容物，以触发圈养狐猴物种的交配行为，这些物种在野外已濒临灭绝，在圈养繁殖计划中成功率很低。
我们使用固相微萃取和气相色谱-质谱技术，检测了雌性温顺（）和环尾狐猴的肛门生殖器气味分泌物。我们确定了区分雌性狐猴在繁殖季节挥发性化学特征的关键化合物，并利用它们开发了特定物种的气味丰容物。然后，我们使用合成混合物制成的气味丰容物，这些混合物传达了关于雌性狐猴生育能力的信息，对欧洲动物园中繁殖不成功的狐猴对进行了测试。我们通过将行为观察与粪便内分泌学相结合，评估了新设计的气味丰容物对其目标物种的影响。
我们鉴定并复制了与雌性气味相关的特定生育力信号。这些气味混合物在丰容条件下和之后触发了雄性的性行为，包括交配。我们还发现了对粪便睾酮水平的影响，尽管丰容条件后睾酮水平有所增加，但没有达到统计学意义。
我们的发现表明，具有生物学相关性的气味丰容物可能会触发自然的特定物种行为，这对基于动物园的濒危狐猴物种的保护繁殖具有潜在意义，并强调结合更多评估方法可能有助于评估环境丰容物的影响。
