A pachyderm perfume: odour encodes identity and group membership in African elephants.

ABSTRACT: Group-living animals that live in complex social systems require effective modes of communication to maintain social cohesion, and several acoustic, olfactory and visual signaling systems have been described. Individuals need to discriminate between in- and out-group odour to both avoid inbreeding and to identify recipients for reciprocal behaviour. The presence of a unique group odour, identified in several social mammals, is a proposed mechanism whereby conspecifics can distinguish group from non-group members. African elephants (Loxodonta africana) live in stable, socially complex, multi-female, fission-fusion groups, characterized by female philopatry, male dispersal and linear dominance hierarchies. Elephant social behaviour suggests that individuals use odour to monitor the sex, repr

SUBMITTER: von Durckheim KEM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9537315 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature