Anal Gland Secretion Codes for Family Membership in the Beaver

We investigated how information about family membership is coded by the individually specific anal gland secretion (AGS) in the beaver, Castor canadensis. Because beavers live in strict family units and relatives share more features in the AGS profile than non-relatives, family members share more AG...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inBehavioral ecology and sociobiology Vol. 44; no. 3; pp. 199 - 208
Main Authors Sun, Lixing, Müller-Schwarze, Dietland
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Heidelberg Springer-Verlag 03.12.1998
Berlin Springer
Subjects
Anal glands
Animal communication
Animal ethology
Biological and medical sciences
Chemicals
Discriminant analysis
Family members
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Kin recognition
Mammalia
Mammals
Mating behavior
Pheromones
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Secretion
Vertebrata
New York
United States
North America
America
Chemical communication
Animal communication
Kin relation
Intraspecific recognition
Rodentia
Pheromone
Vertebrata
Mammalia
Anal gland
Social interaction
Coding
Castor canadensis
Exocrine secretion
Family group
Field study
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Summary:We investigated how information about family membership is coded by the individually specific anal gland secretion (AGS) in the beaver, Castor canadensis. Because beavers live in strict family units and relatives share more features in the AGS profile than non-relatives, family members share more AGS features than non-family members. Therefore, family recognition seems to be a natural consequence of the more specific kin recognition. Multivariate statistical analyses revealed two possibilities in coding for family membership using the multi-component AGS: either two (female) to three (male) AGS compounds or many compounds were used, but we were not able to determine which possibility is more likely. Compounds were not equally important in coding family membership information, and the interactions among compounds were complex. We attempted to reconstruct a lineage tree for the relationship among different families using two-three or many compounds. We found there was no significant difference for trees constructed by using few or many compounds in either males or females. However, the trees derived from male compounds and female compounds lacked good congruence.
ISSN:0340-5443
1432-0762
DOI:10.1007/s002650050532