Sliwa A, Richardson PRK
Department of Zoology & Entomology, University of Pretoria
Anim Behav. 1998 Jul;56(1):137-46. doi: 10.1006/anbe.1998.0757.
We tested the discrimination abilities of aardwolves by monitoring their response to scent marks of male or female donors varying in familiarity translocated into their territories. We followed aardwolves in a vehicle and collected grass stalks with single fresh scent marks. The next evening we placed these grass stalks at dens and middens in the territory of another aardwolf, which we subsequently followed for the whole night. During 43 experiments 617 stalks were translocated. Of these, 164 were located by the animal followed. Both males and females overmarked more frequently, changed their dens more often and increased their scent-marking rate more when they found scent marks of same-sex donors than those of the opposite sex, except during the mating season. Along territory borders and at middens, the majority of marks were sniffed for short periods and overmarked. However, aardwolves seldom overmarked marks at dens in use and sniffed them for much longer, often showing flehmen. Flehmen and prolonged sniffing seemed to indicate investigatory behaviours. They were most prevalent towards the first mark of a nonresident found that evening and particularly towards strangers' marks or (in the case of males) those of a female during the mating season. Overmarking seemed to be asserting territorial ownership. After locating a neighbour's scent mark the resident also immediately increased its rate of scent-marking and often went directly to the respective border. The results suggest that scent marks may function in intimidating intruders and to synchronize mating in the aardwolf. (c) 1998 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour
我们通过监测土狼对转移到其领地内、熟悉程度各异的雄性或雌性捐赠者气味标记的反应，来测试它们的辨别能力。我们乘坐车辆跟踪土狼，并收集带有单个新鲜气味标记的草茎。第二天晚上，我们将这些草茎放置在另一只土狼领地内的洞穴和粪便堆处，随后整晚跟踪这只土狼。在43次实验中，转移了617根茎。其中，被跟踪的动物找到了164根。除了交配季节，当雄性和雌性发现同性捐赠者的气味标记时，它们比发现异性气味标记时更频繁地进行重叠标记、更频繁地更换洞穴，并且提高了气味标记率。在领地边界和粪便堆处，大多数标记被短暂嗅闻并进行了重叠标记。然而，土狼很少对正在使用的洞穴处的标记进行重叠标记，而是会嗅闻更长时间，常常表现出卷唇嗅探反应。卷唇嗅探反应和长时间嗅闻似乎表明是调查行为。它们在当晚发现的非本地动物的第一个标记时最为普遍，在交配季节尤其针对陌生动物的标记或（对于雄性而言）雌性的标记。重叠标记似乎是在宣示领地所有权。在找到邻居的气味标记后，领地所有者也会立即提高其气味标记率，并且常常直接前往相应的边界。结果表明，气味标记可能起到威慑入侵者以及使土狼交配同步的作用。（c）1998年动物行为研究协会
