Abstract
Responses of three groups of house mice, Mus musculus, of different origins (feral mice, commensal mice and third-generation mice of a laboratory colony from feral parents) to the odour of midday jirds, Meriones meridianus, were studied to examine the role of odour in spatial segregation of these species. Mice that co-habited with jirds avoided the jirds' odour, whereas commensal mice and laboratory-bred mice were indifferent to the jirds' odour. Experiments supported the hypotheses that (1) odours mediate inter-species interactions and (2) intraspecific avoidance of rodents based on odour cue is learned rather than innate.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 659-665 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Animal Behaviour |
Volume | 52 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Jan 1996 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Animal Science and Zoology