Arboreal predators

The predator scents typically used in experiments are urine, extracts of feces, scent gland products, or combinations of these. Behavioral responses of small mammal to predator odor stimuli range from vigilance to avoiding the site, and feeding inhibition. We can test squirrels responses to odors of an arboreal predator (cat), a ground predator (fox), and to humans (in most areas harmless pedestrians, but in others they are squirrel hunters), and compare them with their behavior toward odors of a nondangerous herbivore, such as deer or cattle. 

Predator odors, from a zoo, from domestic animals or a commercial source such as a supplier of hunting and trapping lures. Possible choices Arboreal predators such as cat or raccoon and ground predators such as fox or human. 

The instructors have already obtained predator urine from a commercial supplier or the local zoo. They are from red fox (V. vulpes) and an arboreal predator such as the house cat. 

Three- or two-sample choices work best. A predator odor can be juxtaposed to a nonpredator odor and a nonscented control, making for a three-way choice test. In a second version of the experiment, one can differentiate the predator odor by comparing odors of a ground and an arboreal predator. Finally, odors of a native (sympatric) predator can be compared with those of an exotic (allopatric) one (Miiller-Schwarze 1972). These test whether sulfur compounds common to many carnivores are alarming - as suggested by Nolte et al. (1994) - or whether more specific stimuli are at work. 

Arboreal mammals, like squirrels, face a greater danger from climbing predators such as mustelids or raccoons than from ground predators such as foxes, coyotes, or wolves. Accordingly, we can compare the responses of squirrels to these two types of carnivores. 

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