The chemical ecology of ungulates

Abstract

Since the 1971 symposium on ungulate behavior and management in Calgary, Canada, our understanding of behavioral mechanisms of chemical communication in this group has progressed from description to experiments and modeling. Priming pheromones in several domesticated ungulates have been described. More species have been studied. Chemical compounds that are important in communication have been identified. We have learned that multicomponent pheromones appear to be the rule. Stimulus response mechanisms in reproduction, especially the role of flehmen, are now more fully understood. New and rapidly accelerating research deals with the effects of plant defense compounds on herbivores, the animal's ability to overcome these defenses, and the plant's increased production of anti-feedants in response to browsing. Practical applications have not been so easy to achieve as in insects. The search continues for a method to manipulate reproduction in domestic ungulates by odors, to prevent wildlife damage with repellents developed from predator odors, and possibly to use the species' own alarm and territorial pheromones as repellents. Sex and social attractants should be useful in colonizing animals, in wildlife transplanting, and in captive breeding. Plantherbivore relationships may be manipulated by biotechnological changes in plant chemistry, rendering certain clones more or less palatable, as desired.