A Review and Interspecific Comparison of Nocturnal and Cathemeral Strepsirhine Primate Olfactory Behavioural Ecology

Table 2

Comparative interspecific profiles of scent marking behaviours among lemurid species of the genera Eulemur and Hapalemur, as derived from the published literature on these taxa [1–3, 90–113]. The patterns seen in the two pair-bonded Eulemur species, E. mongoz and E. rubriventer, are very similar to each other, and contrast in significant ways to the patterns exhibited amongst the Eulemur taxa that occur in multimale, multifemale social groups (i.e., the E. fulvus group of taxa, E. macaco, and E. coronatus).

Scent-marking behaviours	E. fulvus group	E. macaco	E. coronatus	E. mongoz	E. rubriventer	Hapalemur
Anogenital scent-mark surfaces	+	+	+	+	+	+
Urine mark	+	+	+	+	?	+
Bite mark (saliva deposition) males	+	+	+	Cheek rubbing	Teeth grinding during inter-group encounters	+
Anogenital mark Conspecifics	M→F	M→F	M→F	M→F	M→F	M→F
				F→M	F→M
HeadMarking (males)	+	+	+	+	+	−
Hand/palmarmarking (males)	+	+	+	+	+	Antebrachial gland marking
Anogenital sniff (M→F)	+	+	+	+	+	+
Self-marking	Observed in captivity	Observed in captivity	−	−	−	M marks tail with antebrachial glands to “stink fight” other Ms
Marking during inter-group encounters	Variable.Vocal & visual displays; some marking	Vocal and visual displays	Vocal & visual displays	+	+	+
					(Incl. F overmarking of M anogen marks)	(Both substrate and self-marking)
Flehmen	?	+	?	?	?	?
		(pers. obs.)
Latrine behaviour	−	−	−	−	−	+