Scent marking marmosets

The ability to compare semiochemical patterns and to assess degrees of similarity is a likely mechanism underlying the establishment, and eventually the maintenance of genetic divergence. Amongst Tamarins (Saguinus spp.) and Marmosets, both for within- and between- (related) species distinctions, the complexity of their scent marks provides a discriminatory mechanism (Epple et ai, 1987 Smith et al., 1997). Mixed species groups of these monkeys are enabled to co-exist, to... 

Rylands A. (1985). Tree-gouging and scent marking by marmosets. Anim Behav 33, 1365-1367. 

Lacher, T. E. J., Bouchardet de Fonseca, G. A., Alves, C., Jr., and Magalhaes-Castro, B. (1981). Exudate-eating, scent marking and territoriality in wild populations of marmosets. AnimalBehaviour 29,306-307. 

Epple, G., Belcher, A. M., Kuderling, 1., Zeller, U., Scolnick, L., Greenfield, K. L., and Smith, A. B., 1993, Making sense out of scents - species-differences in scent glands, scent marking behavior and scent mark composition in the Callitrichidae, in Marmosets and Tamarins, Systematics, Behaviour, and Ecology, A. B. Rylands, ed., Oxford Science Publications, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 123-151. 

Smith, T. E., Tomlinson, A. J., MIotkiewicz, J. A., and Abbott, D. H., 2001, Female marmoset monkeys Callithrix jaccus) can be identified from the chemical composition of their scent marks, Chem. Senses 26 449-458. 

Marmosets and tamarins possess a rich repertoire of chemosignaling behaviors. These patterns result in the application of a number of secretions and excretions to items in the environment, to the bodies of conspecifics and to their own bodies. Chemosignaling is associated closely with investigatory behaviors. Individuals of all species sniff and lick each other s bodies and scent glands in a number of sexual and spcial situations. Sniffing and occasional licking of scent marks deposited into the environment is also common (Christen, 1974 Epple,... 

In captive callitrichids, scent marking behavior is also concentrated in specific locations. Common marmosets show a high amount of tree gouging under captive conditions, even though no sap can be obtained this way. 

Mack, D. S. and Kleiman, D. G., 1978, Distribution of scent marks in different contexts in captive lion tamarins, Leontopithecus rosalia (Primates), "Biology and Behaviour of Marmosets,"... 

Sutcliffe, A. G. and Poole, T. B., 1978, Scent marking and associated behaviour in captive common marmosets (Callithrix j acchus jacchus) with a description of the histology of scent glands, J. Zool.,... 

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