Posted on: 02 March, 2017
Author: Alexander P
Cowley and Wise (1970) showed that the activity of 6-day old baby mice is reduced if they are kept in the presence of soiled sawdust or pheromones from a lactating female, whereas activity increases i... Cowley and Wise (1970) showed that the activity of 6-day old baby mice is reduced if they are kept in the presence of soiled sawdust or pheromones from a lactating female, whereas activity increases if they are kept in the presence of stock sawdust. The adaptive significance of this phenomenon is clearly to maintain cohesion in the nest during the preweaning period. Non-estrous females do not show a preference (Doty 1972) to the strongest pheromones. House mice Mus musculus of the strain C57Bl distinguished the odor of their own species from that of Peromyscus maniculatus (Bowers and Alexander 1967). Gerbils (Meriones un- guiculatus) discriminated between the odor of their own species and that of Rattus norvegicus, Mus musculus, Mesocricetus auratus, or Dicrostonyx groenlandicus (Dag and Windsor 1971). Pheromones in Subspecies Among ungulates, two subspecies of Odocoileus hemionus, the Rocky Mountain mule deer (0. h. hemionus) and the black-tailed deer (0. h. columbianus), respond more to tarsal scent of their own subspecies than to that of the other (Muller- Schwarze unpublished). In these, as in previous experiments, the mule deer were less mobile and active than the black-tailed deer. Thus, in response to the preferred tarsal scent of its own subspecies, the mule deer were less active than the black-tail- ed in response to their own tarsal scent. This is a point which has not been taken into account in other odor discrimination studies, where equal manifestations of responsiveness have been assumed in the various species or subspecies used according to http://infospeak.org/create-instant-pheromone-attraction/ Olfactory recognition of sex pheromones There are numerous examples of recognition of sex odors among mammals. Often only the males possess specialized skin glands and consequently a peculiar odor (as, for instance, the subauricular and dorsal glands in the male pronghorn), while the odor indicating estrus is confined to the females. In the golden hamster, experi- mental transfer of vaginal secretions of intact females onto castrated males or ovariectomized females causes males to treat the experimental animals like intact females, with intensied mounting attempts (Johnston 1972). Wild house mice (Mus musculus) can be readily captured in traps containing the odor of the opposite sex (Rowe 1970). In encounters between two laboratory mice, a maximum of urina- tion occurs if the two individuals are of opposite sex. The male will then contribute most of the urine discharged by the pair. It is assumed that this behavior serves in attraction and recognition of the sexes (Reynolds 1971). Olfactory recognition of physiological stages I.eMagnen (1952) showed that male white laboratory rats prefer the odor of recep- tive females over that of non—receptive females. The olfactory discrimination of estrous from non-estrous females has been known for dogs for a long time and has also been demonstrated experimentally in sheep (Kelly 1937; Lindsey 1956; Banks et al. 1963) and cattle (Donovan 1967). In Long-Evans rats, sexually satiated polygamous males prefer the odor of a novel female over one with which t‘l1ey have copulated; monogamous males do not show that preference (Carr et al. 1970a). Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com Alexander P is a blogger that studies pheromones. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.