title: Sternal Gland Scent-Marking Signals Sex, Age, Rank, and Group Identity in Captive Mandrills.
abstract: Mandrills are one of the few Old World primates to show scent-marking. We combined ethological and chemical approaches to improve our understanding of this behavior in 3 zoo-managed groups. We observed the olfactory behavior performed by adults and adolescents (N = 39) for 775h. We investigated the volatile components of sternal scent-marks using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and compared volatile profiles with traits of the signaler. Males marked more than females and within each sex the frequency of scent-marking was related to age and dominance status, but alpha males scent-marked most frequently and particularly in specific areas at the enclosure boundaries. We identified a total of 77 volatile components of sternal gland secretion, including compounds functioning as male sex pheromones in other mammals, in scent-marks spontaneously released on filter paper by 27 male and 18 female mandrills. We confirmed our previous findings that chemical profiles contain information including sex, male age and rank, and we also found that odor may encode information about group membership in mandrills. Our results support the hypotheses that scent-marking signals the status of the dominant male as well as playing territorial functions but also suggest that it is part of sociosexual communication.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology & Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution Research Centre, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK, School of Biology, Chemistry and Forensic Science, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton WV1 1LY, UK, Laboratory of Anthropology, Department of Biology, Florence University, Florence 50122, Italy, stefano.vaglio@durham.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vaglio
authors.affiliation: Analytical Epidemiology and Health Impact Unit, Department of Preventive and Predictive Medicine, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan 20133, Italy and.
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Minicozzi
authors.affiliation: Mass Spectrometry Center (CISM), Florence University, Florence 50139, Italy.
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Romoli
authors.affiliation: Mass Spectrometry Center (CISM), Florence University, Florence 50139, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Boscaro
authors.affiliation: Mass Spectrometry Center (CISM), Florence University, Florence 50139, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pieraccini
authors.affiliation: Mass Spectrometry Center (CISM), Florence University, Florence 50139, Italy.
authors.forename: Gloriano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Moneti
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Anthropology, Department of Biology, Florence University, Florence 50122, Italy.
authors.forename: Jacopo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Moggi-Cecchi
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000375:Aging; D000819:Animal Communication; D000818:Animals; D000836:Animals, Zoo / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D006126:Group Processes; D006608:Hierarchy, Social; D008297:Male; D048528:Mandrillus / Q000502:physiology*; D009812:Odorants; D012543:Scent Glands / Q000378:metabolism*; D012737:Sex Factors; D013731:Territoriality
keywords: Mandrillus sphinx; dynamic headspace extraction; gas chromatography-mass spectrometry; olfaction; pheromones; signaling