The ability of females to predict male status via urinary odors.
In an earlier study, estrous female hamsters were found to prefer the urinary odors of dominant males. This study investigated whether estrous females would exhibit preferential responding to randomly chosen, socially naive males before dominance testing occurred. Estrous females were indeed found to exhibit such preferences. Such discriminative abilities are discussed with reference to adaptive mating strategies for females.
D000818:Animals; D006224:Cricetinae; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009812:Odorants / Q000032:analysis; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D012930:Social Dominance; D014556:Urine / Q000032:analysis