 |
| Cuon alpinus and prey |
During a long time, we have lived by the assumption that, if we were in a forest, we'd better don't cut ourselves, because our blood would attract predators. But, what does the blood have to elicit such a behaviour? Is it simply a special odour or a particular substance involved? Now we might have a better understanding of that response.
Recent studies analysing the composition of volatiles in mammalian blood, an important prey-associated odor stimulus for predators, found the odorant trans-4,5-epoxy-(E)-2-decenal to evoke a typical “metallic, blood-like” odor quality in humans. Sara Nilsson and colleagues at the University of Linkoping assessed the behavior of captive Asian wild dogs (Cuon alpinus), African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus), South American bush dogs (Speothos venaticus), and Siberian tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) when presented with wooden logs that were impregnated either with mammalian blood or with the blood odor component trans-4,5-epoxy-(E)-2-decenal, and compared it to their behavior towards a fruity odor (iso-pentyl acetate) and a near-odorless solvent (diethyl phthalate) as control.
Researchers then watched the dog species to see which logs they showed an interest in and for how long. Both species were seen to frequently sniff and bite both the aldehyde and horse blood specimens, but showed no interest in the logs doped with the odourless solvent. The results demonstrate that a single blood odor component can be as efficient in eliciting behavioral responses in large carnivores as the odor of real blood, suggesting that trans-4,5-epoxy-(E)-2-decenal may be perceived by predators as a “character impact compound” of mammalian blood odor.
__________________________________________________________________________________
References
1 S Nilsson et al | PLoS One | November 2014 | DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0112694
