meleagris, Sc arenicola and the Australian skinks Lerista stylis

meleagris, Sc. arenicola and the Australian skinks Lerista stylis and Lerista carpentariae. We observed asymmetry between the left

and right sides in the vestigial appendicular skeletons of four of the African skink species: A. meleagris, Sc. anguina, Sc. arenicola and Se. bayonii. “
“The ability selleck screening library to individually recognize conspecifics is acknowledged as one of the prerequisites for the development of sophisticated social relationships in group-living species. It has been hypothesized that the discrimination of individual identities is crucial for the maintenance of social relationships and cooperation based on repeated interactions, and for the evolution of many social behaviours. Previous studies have shown that the close calls of the cooperatively breeding Kinase Inhibitor Library ic50 banded mongoose Mungos mungo are individually distinct. For instance, banded mongoose pups are

able to distinguish between close calls of their escort and of a non-escort. In this study, we used playbacks based on the recently proposed violation-of-expectation paradigm and a dominance/age class recognition setup to investigate whether adult banded mongooses use the individual signature of close calls to distinguish among adult group members. We found no evidence that the individual signature in close calls is used to discriminate identity in banded mongooses. Based on the previous work, we suggest that this is not because banded mongooses Diflunisal are incapable of using signatures as a means of individual discrimination, but because the benefits of such discrimination are low. The study highlights the importance of understanding the function of a signal (e.g. the expected response), timing and the biology

of the species when designing and performing playback experiments. “
“This study documents the urine spraying behaviour of wildcats, Felis silvestris. Urine spraying is considered a short term visual mark and the main form of scent marking by felids. When urine spraying, a wildcat raises up its tail and ejects backwards a spray of urine against a prominent object of its surrounding environment. The selection of a urinating substrate should maximize the communicating value of the mark, but the factors that influence this selection are poorly understood. We hypothesized that urine spraying marks are not placed randomly, but that wildcats select marking post based on traits that enhance the effectiveness of the scent mark, by maximizing their detectability, diffusion or persistence. This study shows that wildcats select common juniper, Juniperus communis, to spray their urine mark on not because of the physical traits of the plant, but based on the species. The effectiveness of an olfactive mark has to do with the degradation and oxidation of its chemical components. The common juniper has a high concentration of volatile organic compounds (VOC) with antioxidant activity.

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