Costs of injury for scent signalling in a strepsirrhine primate

Honesty is crucial in animal communication when signallers are conveying information about their condition. Condition dependence implies a cost to signal production; yet, evidence of such cost is scarce. We examined the effects of naturally occurring injury on the quality and salience of olfactory s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2018-06, Vol.8 (1), p.9882-13, Article 9882
Main Authors: Harris, Rachel L., Boulet, Marylène, Grogan, Kathleen E., Drea, Christine M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/158/856
631/181/19/2471
631/45/776/812
631/601/18
631/92/604
Animal communication
Animals
Antibiotics
Aroma compounds
Bioassays
Chemical communication
Conspecifics
Gas chromatography
Humanities and Social Sciences
Mass spectrometry
Mass spectroscopy
multidisciplinary
Primates
Reproductive behavior
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Secretions
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Summary:Honesty is crucial in animal communication when signallers are conveying information about their condition. Condition dependence implies a cost to signal production; yet, evidence of such cost is scarce. We examined the effects of naturally occurring injury on the quality and salience of olfactory signals in ring-tailed lemurs ( Lemur catta ). Over a decade, we collected genital secretions from 23 (13 male, 10 female) adults across 34 unique injuries, owing primarily to intra-group fights. Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, we tested for differences in the chemical composition of secretions across pre-injury, injury and recovery, in animals that did and did not receive antibiotics. Lemur genital secretions were significantly dampened and altered during injury, with patterns of change varying by sex, season and antibiotics. Using behavioural bioassays (excluding odorants from antibiotic-treated animals), we showed that male ‘recipients’ discriminated injury status based on scent alone, directing more competitive counter marking towards odorants from injured vs. uninjured male ‘signallers.’ That injured animals could not maintain their normal signatures provides rare evidence of the energetic cost to signal production. That conspecifics detected olfactory-encoded ‘weakness’ suggests added behavioural costs: By influencing the likelihood of intra- or inter-sexual conflict, condition-dependent signals could have important implications for socio-reproductive behaviour.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-27322-3