TY - JOUR
AU - Holmes, Donna, J.
AB - Abstract The role of secretions of sternal scent glands in social recognition was examined in captive adult female Virginia opossums, Didelphis virginiana. Five of six females directed significantly more investigative behavior toward plastic disks artificially scent marked with sternal odors from male conspecifics than toward those marked with sternal odors from females when odors were presented in paired male-female combinations. None investigated female odors more than those of males. Estrous status did not appear to influence responses to sternal odors. Subjects also demonstrated the ability to discriminate between individual odors of females presented in pairs, even though females lack the specialized sternal glands characteristic of males. No evidence was found for an ability of female opossums to discriminate among odors of individual males. Didelphis, scent glands, olfactory communication This content is only available as a PDF. Author notes Present address: Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138 © 1992 The American Society of Mammalogists
TI - Sternal Odors as Cues for Social Discrimination by Female Virginia Opossums, Didelphis virginiana
JO - Journal of Mammalogy
DO - 10.2307/1382058
DA - 1992-05-26
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/sternal-odors-as-cues-for-social-discrimination-by-female-virginia-1xCTCeDuTU
SP - 286
EP - 291
VL - 73
IS - 2
DP - DeepDyve
ER -