Male and female mound-building mice, Mus spicilegus, discriminate dietary and individual odours of conspecifics

Diane Colombelli-Négrel (1) , Patrick Gouat (1)

1 LEEC - Laboratoire d'Ethologie Expérimentale et Comparée

Individual body odour is known to provide information to conspecifics about both the identity and the biological state of the donor. It is not clear whether information related to individuality and biological state is evaluated collectively or separately. To gain insight into this subject, we examined the role of diet change for conspecific recognition of individual chemical signatures in mound-building mice Mus spicilegus. The diet change consisted of the addition of an aromatic concentrate to the drinking water. We used two different procedures based on spontaneous responses of mice to the presentation of odorous stimuli: the habituation-dishabituation procedure and the habituation-generalisation procedure. Mice of both sexes were able to perceive the two types of information contained in the modified chemical signature of the donor. Males and females were able to perceive the change of diet and, despite this change of diet, mice were able to identify the chemical signature of a donor.

Mots clés: ethology; chemical communication; individual recognition; chemical signature; Mus spicilegus

Domaines: Neurosciences [q-bio.NC]; Neurosciences

Diane Colombelli-Négrel, Patrick Gouat. Male and female mound-building mice, Mus spicilegus, discriminate dietary and individual odours of conspecifics. Animal Behaviour, 2006, 72 (3), pp.577-583. ⟨hal-00269387⟩