Urine marking in populations of wild house mice Mus domesticus rutty. II. Communication between females

Abstract

Several hypotheses were proposed for the function of urine mark communication between female house mice; predicted responses of females towards urine marks were then compared with those observed within eight captive territorial family groups. The responses of individual resident females in four classes (breeding and non-breeding adults, subadults and juveniles) were measured towards familiar resident, familiar neighbour and unfamiliar urine from breeding and subadult females, and towards a clean patch of substrate, introduced into their family-marked territory. Strong counter-marking of breeding female urine by resident breeding females especially on neighbour urine, prolonged investigation of familiar and unfamiliar urine by subadult females, and the specific attraction of resident females to neighbour female urine, support the proposal that urine marking plays an important role in communication between females. Responses were consistent with the hypothesis that females mark at high frequency to advertise their dominant breeding status to other females. The importance of such communication for the social modulation of individual breeding status within female social groups is discussed.