Departamento de Ecología, Genética y Evolución, Laboratorio de Ecología y Comportamiento Animal, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The Owl Monkey Project, Fundación ECO, Formosa, Argentina.
Am J Primatol. 2024 Sep;86(9):e23669. doi: 10.1002/ajp.23669. Epub 2024 Jul 25.
Olfactory behaviors serve a wide variety of social functions in mammals. Odor may signal information about attributes of individuals important for mating and reproduction. Olfactory behaviors, such as scent-marking, may also function as part of home range or resource defense strategies. We assessed the potential social and home range defense functions of olfactory behavior in a pair-living and sexually monogamous primate, Azara's owl monkey (Aotus azarae), in the Argentinian Chaco. This is the most extensive investigation of owl monkey olfactory behaviors in the wild. Individuals regularly performed olfactory behaviors (group mean + SD = 1.3 + 0.5 per hour). The patterns were generally comparable to those observed in studies of captive owl monkeys, except that urine washing was the most common behavior in the wild, as opposed to scent-marking and genital inspections. Most olfactory behaviors were performed by adults, and there were striking sex differences in genital inspections: almost all consisted of an adult male inspecting the paired adult female. These findings suggest that olfactory behaviors play an important role in signaling and coordinating reproduction among owl monkeys, particularly during periods of female conception and pregnancy. Additionally, our research indicates that these behaviors may also serve as a defense strategy for maintaining the core area of their home ranges. This study offers the first assessment of the role of olfactory behaviors in reproductive contexts and home range defense in pair-living, monogamous platyrrhine primates.
哺乳动物的嗅觉行为具有广泛的社会功能。气味可能会传递有关个体对交配和繁殖重要属性的信息。嗅觉行为，如气味标记，也可能作为领地或资源防御策略的一部分发挥作用。我们评估了在一对生活和性单配的灵长类动物——阿扎拉的夜猴（Aotus azarae）中嗅觉行为的潜在社会和领地防御功能，这种行为发生在阿根廷查科地区。这是对野生夜猴嗅觉行为最广泛的研究。个体经常进行嗅觉行为（组平均值+SD=1.3+0.5 次/小时）。这些模式与在圈养夜猴研究中观察到的模式大致相同，只是在野外，尿液冲洗是最常见的行为，而不是气味标记和生殖器检查。大多数嗅觉行为都是由成年个体完成的，生殖器检查存在明显的性别差异：几乎所有的检查都是由成年雄性对配对的成年雌性进行的。这些发现表明，嗅觉行为在夜猴的信号传递和繁殖协调中起着重要作用，特别是在雌性受孕和怀孕期间。此外，我们的研究表明，这些行为也可能是维持其核心领地的防御策略。这项研究首次评估了嗅觉行为在繁殖背景和配对生活、单配制的阔鼻猴类的领地防御中的作用。
