Why are predator urines aversive to prey?
Predator odors often repel prey species. In the present experiments, we investigated whether changes in the diet of a predator, the coyote (Canis latrans) would affect the repellency of its urine. Furthermore, because predator odors have a high sulfur content, reflecting large amounts of meat in the diet, we investigated the contribution of sulfurous odors to repellency. Our results were consistent with the hypothesis that diet composition and sulfurous metabolites of meat digestion are important for the repellency of predator odors to potential prey.
United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Animal Damage Control, Denver Wildlife Research Center, 1835 Black Lake, Blvd., 98512, Olympia, Washington.
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Nolte
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Mason
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Aronov
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Campbell