Scientists in New York City discover a valuable method to track rats

Date:  September 17, 2019

Source:  Oxford University Press USA

A new paper in The Journal of Urban Ecology, published by Oxford University Press, finds that rats can be baited to, or repelled from, locations using pheromones found in the scents of other rats.

Rats cost the world's economy more than $300 billion a year. In addition to causing fines and business closures, rats spread disease, start fires, and disable motor vehicles. In Manhattan alone, rodent activity has been found in 23% of all restaurants. Despite these impacts, little is known about the behavior of urban rats, whose behaviors differ from that of laboratory rats. This lack of information is due to several factors, including the difficulty of releasing pest animals back into cities after capturing and identifying them, the reluctance of property owners to provide access to researchers, and rat control programs.

Over a one year period, researchers trapped and implanted microchips in city rats in a waste recycling center in Brooklyn, New York. To overcome issues in using GPS to track movement in dense urban environments, they utilized radio-frequency identification sensors. Male and female scents were then placed on, or near, these sensors and replaced every two weeks. To determine whether risk impacted the findings, researchers positioned these devices in sheltered, safe areas that rats were familiar with and also in more risky, open environments where rats were vulnerable to predation.

Rats reacted differently to male and female scents. In general, when rats responded to sensors with male-scents, risk was unimportant. Rats briefly visited male scents equally in exposed and sheltered areas, and then stayed away. Female scents, however, were visited significantly more often than male scents (0.2 visits/day compared to 5.02 visits/day). This implies that attractants may be more useful near sheltered areas while deterrent scents may be more useful in exposed areas where animals are vulnerable to predators. These findings address a knowledge gap about rat-scent preference that could assist in urban wildlife management tools, such as the deployment of baits or immuno-contraceptives.

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Cat pheromones may cause increased scratching, focus on scratching devices

Date: July 15, 2015

Source: Texas Tech University

Cats have long been some of the most independent and unpredictable animals on the planet. They were revered by Egyptian pharaohs and have been used as symbols by many cultures for their grace, elegance and demeanor.

Predicting their behavior, however, has long been a mystery, one which scholars throughout the ages have studied. Figuring out what a cat wants, when it wants it and how it wants it has led to numerous theories and studies.

Now, one professor in the Texas Tech University College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources may have unlocked the answer to at least part of what a cat is thinking when it comes to what that cat prefers to scratch.

John McGlone, a professor of animal welfare and animal behavior in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences, presented this week his study on cat scratchers, which scratchers cats preferred and why. His research was delivered during the 2015 Joint Annual Meeting (JAM) of the American Dairy Science Association (ASDA) and the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) in Orlando, Florida.

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Pheromones regulate aggression of non-mother female mice toward pups in wild-derived mice

Date:

August 5, 2014

Source:

Weizmann Institute of Science

Summary:

A new mouse model has allowed researchers to explore, for the first time, the biological roots of aggressive behavior in females, both toward each other and the pups of others. Their findings provide the basis for developing additional mouse strains that will enable a better understanding of the neural and genetic basis of behavior relating to reproduction in females, and the differences between males and females.

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Females Butterflies Can Smell If a Male Butterfly Is Inbred

Mar. 5, 2013 — The mating success of male butterflies is often lower if they are inbred. But how do female butterflies know which males to avoid? New research reveals that inbred male butterflies produce significantly less sex pheromones, making them less attractive to females.

The research was published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

If animals (and humans) breed with a relative their offspring will be inbred and more likely to have genetic disorders. Because of these disorders inbred males are often weaker and, for instance, less able to defend the nest or provide food for their youngsters. To make sure her offspring will have the highest chance of survival and reproduction, females are expected to avoid mating with a weak inbred male. That is, if she is able to recognize who is inbred and who is not.

Erik van Bergen, currently at the University of Cambridge and formerly with Leiden University, where he conducted much of the research, said: "Interestingly, traits used by males to attract the opposite sex are often strongly affected by inbreeding and might be used by females to recognize inbred individuals. For example, inbred male zebra finches produce a lower number of different individual songs and inbred male guppies have less conspicuous colour patterns. Additionally, in one cricket species, the inbred males are known to produce less acoustic signals while trying to attract females."

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130305200457.htm

Pheromone Helps Mice Remember Where to Find a Mate

Dec. 13, 2012 — Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found that male mice produce a pheromone that provokes females and competitor males to remember a preference for the place where the pheromone was previously encountered.

Some animals, such as moths, use a sensitive tracking system to trace airborne sex pheromones to the source, while others, such as snakes, follow trails of pheromones left on the ground. A team from the University's Institute of Integrative Biology has discovered that mice use a different system to locate mates and competitors by remembering exactly where they have encountered a male sex pheromone called darcin.

Instinctively attracted

Darcin is a small protein in the urine scent marks of male mice. Although not detected from a distance, females that explore scent-marked areas are instinctively attracted to spend time near this pheromone when they come into contact with it.

The research, published in the journal Science, shows that the pheromone stimulates very rapid learning of spatial cues associated with its location, so that females remember a preference for this location when they return to the area.

Males use the same mechanism to remember the location of rival male scents, making contact with darcin when they detect a male's scent that is not their own. The ability to remember and rapidly relocate sites scent marked by other males will help them to drive off rivals and to counter-mark with their own scent.

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121213142305.htm