The Ecology of Vertebrate Olfaction

ISBN-13: 9789400958715 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 234 str.

D. M. Stoddart

Opis

Scientists not infrequently succumb to the frustration they feel when they have to garner often quite fundamental information about an undeveloped field from scattered publications covering many disciplines by writing their own review of the field in question. This is an invaluable exercise, particularly for those in the business of stimulating students to grapple with unfamiliar ideas and concepts, since it makes the introduction to that literature much less painful. To some extent I, too, have succumbed to this frustration by writing this book, but I have also, much more importantly, tried to develop out of this literature an olfactory perspective of the whole organism in its environment - in its feeding relations, reproductive biology, ecological isolation, social organization, ability to give warning and defend itself, and ability to navigate when displaced from home. One event more than any other acted as a catalyst to encourage me to start this task. One evening in the arid Australian bush, as I was returning to camp, the stirring of the air bathed me in a host of smells I had been unaware of in the stifling heat of the day. I found their effect on me quite extraordinary, for they refreshed and revitalized me more than I would ever have imagined possible. I had a rare glimpse of what it must be like to be macrosmatic-to rely on one's nose for one's sensory input.

Spis treści

1 The olfactory system of vertebrates.- 1.1 Anatomy.- 1.2 Odorant characteristics.- 1.3 Function of the external nares and related structures.- 1.4 Evolutionary trends.- 1.5 Summary.- 2 Sources and chemistry of vertebrate scent.- 2.1 The sites of odour production.- 2.2 Chemical composition of odorants.- 2.3 Threshold levels of perception.- 3 Detection of food.- 3.1 Responses of young to food odours.- 3.2 The detection of plant food by odorous cues.- 3.3 The detection of animal food by odorous cues.- 3.4 Scavengers.- 3.5 Quasi-parasites.- 3.6 Summary.- 4 Reproductive processes.- 4.1 Sex attraction and recognition; the advertisement of sexual status.- 4.2 Detection and induction of oestrus, ovulation and lordosis.- 4.3 Courtship, mating and related behaviours.- 4.4 Pregnancy.- 4.5 Parental behaviour; imprinting.- 4.6 Growth; physical and psychosexual development.- 4.7 Summary and conclusions.- 5 Odour discrimination and species isolation.- 5.1 Individual odour.- 5.2 Family, population and racial odours.- 5.3 Species odours and sexual isolation.- 5.4 Summary and conclusions.- 6 Dispersion and social integration.- 6.1 Intraspecific aggression.- 6.2 The social hierarchy.- 6.3 Territoriality.- 6.4 Correlation between aggression-motivated behaviour and scent deposition.- 6.5 Summary and conclusions.- 7 Alarm and defence.- 7.1 Detection of the predator.- 7.2 Transmission of alarm or warning signals.- 7.3 Active defence.- 7.4 Protection from intraspecific attack.- 7.5 Summary.- 8 Olfactory navigation and orientation.- 8.1 Olfactory navigation.- 8.2 Homing orientation.- 8.3 Summary.- 9 Applications of researches into olfactory biology.- 9.1 Pest repellents and attractants.- 9.2 Animal husbandry.- 9.3 Miscellaneous applications.- References.- Taxonomie index.