Male Burmese pythons follow female scent trails and show sex-specific behaviors  

作　　者：Shannon A.RICHARD Eric A.TILLMAN John S.HUMPHREY Michael L.AVERY M.Rockwell PARKER 

机构地区：[1]Department of Biology,James Madison University,Harrisonburg,Virginia,USA [2]National Wildlife Research Center,Florida Field Station,U.S.Department of Agriculture,Gainesville,Florida,USA

出　　处：《Integrative Zoology》2019年第5期460-469,共10页整合动物学（英文版）

基　　金：the IACUC of the National Wildlife Research Center.This research was supported through cooperative agree­ments 14-7412-1061-CA,15-7412-1155-CA,and 16-7412-1269-CA between James Madison University and the U.S.Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service(APHIS).

摘　　要：Animals communicate with potential mates using species-specific signals,and pheromones are powerful sexu­al signals that modify conspecific behavior to facilitate mate location.Among the vertebrates,snakes are espe­cially adept in mate searching via chemical trailing,which is particularly relevant given that many snake spe­cies are invasive outside their native ranges.Chemical signals used in mate choice are,thus,potentially valuable tools for management of invasive snake species.The Burmese python(Python bivittatus)is an invasive snake in the Florida Everglades where it is negatively impacting native fauna.In this study,we sought to:(i)deter­mine if males can follow conspecific chemical trails in a Y-maze;and(ii)describe the mate searching behav­iors exhibited by males while trailing.All males consistently followed a single female scent trail in the maze,but when only a male scent trail was present they did not discriminate between the male and blank arms.Rate of tongue-flicking,a proxy for chemosensory sampling,was also marginally higher when males were following female versus male scent trails.However,when both female and male scent trails were simultaneously present in the Y-maze,males did not show a preference for the female arm,although the tongue-flick rate was higher in the female-only trial compared to female versus male.Analyses of multiple male behaviors individually and us­ing an ethogram revealed that behaviors were more frequent and complex in the female-only trials compared to male-only trials.Additional behavioral trials are needed to determine if an effective pheromonal approach to Burmese python management is possible.

关 键 词：chemical ecology invasive species PHEROMONE snake trailing 

分 类 号：TP3[自动化与计算机技术—计算机科学与技术]