The use of faecal markers for the delimitation of

Authors: Leire RuizAizpurua Aimara Planillo Antonio J Carpio José GuerreroCasado Francisco S Tortosa

Publish Date: 2013/04/12

Volume: 16, Issue: 3, Pages: 157-162

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Abstract

Olfactory signalling is widespread among mammal inter and intraspecific communication systems Social mammals use latrines faecal accumulations as a communication system which address the needs of individuals both inside and outside the social group Latrines are commonly used as olfactory and visual signals for the delimitation of territories and the location of these signals may thus provide useful clues for the study of the marking animals’ behaviour and the delimitation of a spatial framework for these studies In this work we have tested the application of indigestible faecal markers in order to define territorial boundaries marked by latrines in wild rabbit social groups Different combinations of baits and markers were first tested on wild rabbits kept in captive conditions and the best combinations were then applied to rabbits in seminatural conditions in order to test their feasibility for use with wild populations As one possible application of the method Minimum Convex Polygons and Kernel density estimators were used to analyse the distribution of the latrines of three wild rabbit social groups in seminatural conditions The results of this showed that the marked bait method is a useful tool for exploring the territorial behaviour of social mammals that use latrines for communication It can also provide useful information for the definition of spatial frameworks based on social structures and is fast straightforward easy cheap and does not require specialised training

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