title: The role of scent-marking in patchy and highly fragmented populations of the Cabrera vole (Microtus cabrerae Thomas, 1906).
abstract: Rodent scent-marking is often used for territorial defence and self-advertisement, and both functions often entail the continuous scent-marking of a large area with high costs. In species with highly-fragmented populations and low density, in which the likelihood of social encounters is low, the costs of continuous scent-marking might exceed the associated fitness benefits; therefore, less intensive scent-marking only to signal presence to the opposite sex may be used. This hypothesis was tested in captivity with the Cabrera vole, a species with highly fragmented and low-density populations. Firstly, to assess the unknown scent-marking behaviour of the Cabrera voles, we conducted an assay wherein voles could scent-mark a clean substrate. Both sexes marked with urine and faeces, but never with anogenital secretions, and the amount of scent-marks was not different between sexes. In the subsequent assay, voles of each sex were given the choice of scent-mark on clean substrates or on substrates previously scent-marked by males or females. Both sexes marked with urine a larger area on substrates pre-marked by the opposite sex than on substrates pre-marked by the same-sex and clean substrates; however, no differences were found in the frequency of fecal boli deposited on the three types of substrate, and no anogenital secretions were found. The clear preference of receivers to scent-mark with urine the substrate pre-marked by the opposite sex strongly suggests that Cabrera voles use urine scent-marking for inter-sexual communication, probably to increase mate-finding likelihood, rather than for territorial defense and/or self-advertisement.
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Ecossistemas e Paisagens Mediterrânicas - Instituto de Ciências Agrárias e Ambientais Mediterrânicas, Universidade de Évora - Núcleo da Mitra, Apartado 94, 7002-554 Évora, Portugal. luispgomes@gmail.com
authors.forename: Luis Alexandre Piteira
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Gomes
authors.forename: António Paulo Pereira
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Mira
authors.forename: Eduardo Nuno
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Barata
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003411:Arvicolinae / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D011174:Portugal; D012543:Scent Glands; D012737:Sex Factors; D013731:Territoriality