Repellents conspecific odors

Salamanders of the ambystomatid family may also use territorial marks. In contrast to red-backed salamanders, which are repelled by conspecific odors or fecal pellets (Jaeger and Gergits, 1979 Jaeger, 1986), spotted salamanders, Amhystoma maculatum, are attracted to paper towels on which conspecifics had lived for 4 days, whether the latter were familiar or unfamiliar (Ducey and Ritsema, 1988). 

Although sometimes animals avoid areas marked by conspecifics, this result is not universal (Gosling McKay, 1990 Hurst, 1989). More recently, studies indicate that individuals are attracted to rather than repelled by the presence and advertisements of conspecific territory owners in a variety of vertebrate species (reviewed by Smith Peacock, 1990 Stamps, 1994). Hurst (1989) found that neither male nor female house mice avoided areas marked with odors from an unfamiliar family. Rather, Hurst s data showed that house mice entered an area faster if it contained odors from an unfamiliar family. Even in the golden hamster Mesocricetus auratus), a solitary animal, males spent time investigating odors of same-sex conspecifics (Solomon Glickman, 1977). Therefore the odors of a breeding male pine vole, even combined with those from a breeding female, may be as attractive to females as odors from an unfamiliar male. 

Two possible sources of repellents from animals are the odors associated with mammalian carnivores and aggressive conspecifics. Rats actively avoid predator odors and this response appears to be innate. Trimethyl thiazoline extracted from fox (Vulpes vulpes) faeces caused an enclosed population of wild rats to alter their activities (Vemet-Maury, Constant Chanel, 1992). In the short-term, which may mean days or weeks, habituation to these predator odors appears to be slow. However, the odors may require reinforcement by some form of encounter with the predator itself to be effective in the longer-term (Muller-Schwarze, 1994). 

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