Аннотация:Using a habituation-dishabituation procedure, we investigated the ability of male red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) to discriminate olfactory signatures of different male conspecifics. Our results indicate that they effectively pay attention to odours from unfamiliar male conspecifics and that they invest more time sniffing litter impregnated with these unfamiliar social odours than control litters. They can also habituate themselves to a given social odour and can discriminate olfactory signatures of different male conspecifics. The role of olfactory communication in this territorial species from the boreal forest is discussed with regard to the "dear enemy" phenomenon and to the fact that these squirrels are known to use vocal communication intensively to advertise their territories.
