Abstract
Only little is known about whether single volatile compounds are as efficient in eliciting behavioral responses in animals as the whole complex mixture of a behaviorally relevant odor. Recent studies analysing the composition of volatiles in mammalian blood, an important prey-associated odor stimulus for predators, found the odorant trans-4,5-epoxy-(E)-2-decenal to evoke a typical “metallic, blood-like” odor quality in humans. We therefore assessed the behavior of captive Asian wild dogs (Cuon alpinus), African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus), South American bush dogs (Speothos venaticus), and Siberian tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) when presented with wooden logs that were impregnated either with mammalian blood or with the blood odor component trans-4,5-epoxy-(E)-2-decenal, and compared it to their behavior towards a fruity odor (iso-pentyl acetate) and a near-odorless solvent (diethyl phthalate) as control. We found that all four species displayed significantly more interactions with the odorized wooden logs such as sniffing, licking, biting, pawing, and toying, when they were impregnated with the two prey-associated odors compared to the two non-prey-associated odors. Most importantly, no significant differences were found in the number of interactions with the wooden logs impregnated with mammalian blood and the blood odor component in any of the four species. Only one of the four species, the South American bush dogs, displayed a significant decrease in the number of interactions with the odorized logs across the five sessions performed per odor stimulus. Taken together, the results demonstrate that a single blood odor component can be as efficient in eliciting behavioral responses in large carnivores as the odor of real blood, suggesting that trans-4,5-epoxy-(E)-2-decenal may be perceived by predators as a “character impact compound” of mammalian blood odor. Further, the results suggest that odorized wooden logs are a suitable manner of environmental enrichment for captive carnivores.
Highlights
The hunting behavior of a variety of mammalian predators suggests that they may use the odor of blood to home in on wounded prey [1,2,3]
A comparison between the four odor stimuli showed that the Asian wild dogs displayed a significantly higher number of interactions with the odorized logs when presented with the real blood odor compared to the fruity odor (x2 = 15.02, P,0.0001) and the blank control (x2 = 29.49, P,0.0001)
The results of the present study demonstrate that a single blood odor component can be as efficient in eliciting behavioral responses in large carnivores as the odor of real blood
Summary
The hunting behavior of a variety of mammalian predators suggests that they may use the odor of blood to home in on wounded prey [1,2,3]. Despite the presumed importance of blood odors for both predator/prey relationships and intraspecific chemical communication, surprisingly little is known about the volatiles that comprise the odor of blood in mammals, and even less is known about the constituents of blood odor that elicit behavioral responses in predators and/or prey species Such knowledge, would be useful for both theoretical and practical purposes: it would, for example, allow ethologists to better understand the chemosensory dimension of predator/prey relationships and of intraspecific chemical communication [3]. It would allow olfactory researchers to further explore the concept of ‘‘key compounds’’ in naturally occurring odor mixtures [12] It may allow for the development of more effective chemical repellents, for example along highways or around plantations [13], or more effective environmental enrichment for captive carnivores [14]
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