Some communicatory functions of scent marking in the cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus oedipus)

Abstract

The ability of cotton-top tamarins to discriminate between scents from conspecifics and those from other tamarin species, and between scents from conspecific individuals was tested. Cotton-tops scent mark with specialized skin glands in the circumgenital area. Females possess larger glands than males and show more scent-marking behavior. In the first experiment, subjects were presented with a glass rod scented with either material collected from the surface of the scent glands of a conspecific female, with scent material from a female of a related species, or with an unscented rod. Glass rods carrying scent from conspecifics were sniffed more frequently than rods carrying scent from related tamarin species or unscented rods. A second experiment offered a choice between two glass rods, one scent marked by aSaguinus o. oedipus female, the second one scent marked by aSaguinus fusdcollis female. Shelves carrying rods that had been scent marked by conspecifics were contacted more frequently than those carrying rods marked by heterospecific females. Scent marks from conspecific females were also sniffed more frequently. A third experiment compared the level of responses to rods carrying material collected from the scent glands of female individuals to which the subjects had been habituated with their responses to rods carrying scent from females to which they had not been habituated. Contacting and sniffing responses to the scents of novel females were higher than those to the scents of females to which the subjects had been habituated.