caa a22 4500 465782000 CHVBK 20180323111957.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170327e19900601xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/BF00170899 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/BF00170899 Competitor assessment by scent matching: an experimental test [Elektronische Daten] [L. Gosling, H. McKay] Summary: If males assess potential opponents by comparing their odour with that of scent marks in the vicinity (the so called ‘scent matching' hypothesis) they should be more reluctant to fight when these odours are the same. Under these circumstances the potential opponent is thus identified as a resource holder (a male monopolising a territory or group of females) that would escalate encounters to defend its resources. We tested this prediction by comparing the fighting behaviour of male house mice, Mus domesticus, when on a scent-marked substrate that matched the odour of an opponent with their behaviour on a substrate that did not match. As predicted, the delay before the first fight was longer and the rate of subsequent fighting lower when the scents matched. This result is consistent with the interpretation that resource holders scent mark to provide opponents with a means of competitor assessment and that they thus reduce the costs of resource defence. Springer-Verlag, 1990 Gosling L. Mammal Ecology Group, ADAS Central Science Laboratory, Jupiter Road, NR6 6SP, Norwich, UK aut McKay H. Mammal Ecology Group, ADAS Central Science Laboratory, Jupiter Road, NR6 6SP, Norwich, UK aut Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Springer-Verlag 26/6(1990-06-01), 415-420 0340-5443 26:6<415 1990 26 265 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00170899 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00170899 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Gosling L. Mammal Ecology Group, ADAS Central Science Laboratory, Jupiter Road, NR6 6SP, Norwich, UK aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- McKay H. Mammal Ecology Group, ADAS Central Science Laboratory, Jupiter Road, NR6 6SP, Norwich, UK aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Springer-Verlag 26/6(1990-06-01), 415-420 0340-5443 26:6<415 1990 26 265 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer