Urine marking in populations of wild house mice, Mus domesticus rutti, I (1990)

Hurst, J. L.

Abstract

Various hypotheses proposed for the function of urine marking in communication between male house mice were examined by comparing the predicted responses towards urine marks with those observed within eight captive territorial family groups. The responses of individual resident males in four classes (dominant and subdominant adults, subadults and juveniles) were measured towards familiar resident, familiar neighbour and unfamiliar urine marks from dominant and subadult males, and towards a clean patch of substrate, introduced into their family-marked territory. Attraction, avoidance, investigation and counter-marking responses were consistent with the hypothesis that territorial males mark at high frequency to advertise their aggressive dominance over other resident and intruder males. Dominant males counter-marked resident and non-resident male marks strongly, while dominant male marks were investigated closely by males subordinate to the mark donor. Both dominant and subordinate males appear to use dominant male marks to orient to their resident territory and away from areas marked by other dominant males.