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NEIL JORDAN former member ............................................................................................................................................ information on his current job can be found here: Pine Marten Research
PhD Research: The functions of scent marking My main
interests are in olfactory communication systems, particularly
the trade-off between cooperative and competitive scent marking within
social groups, and the function(s) of scent marking in mammals in
general. My previous work on meerkats
(Suricata suricatta) suggested
that scent marking has important functions in territory and mate
defence, with individual investment in scent marking dependent on the
costs and benefits of excluding intruders, which in turn depends on the
resident's sex and breeding status. My current research expands on
these ideas using an habituated wild population of banded
mongooses (Mungos mungo) in
Uganda. Banded mongooses scent mark in a variety of ways including a
stereotyped token urination "dance" (click for
video), and depositing anal gland secretion by dragging the anal
region over objects. In contrast to meerkats, members of each sex are
more likely to over mark members of the same sex, with anal marking
being the most common mark type (click for
video). By combining behavioural
observations and experiments in
the
field
with chemical analyses of scent secretions in the laboratory, I hope to
investigate the function(s) of scent marking in banded mongooses, and
mammals in general. Key areas
of interest include: - Scent recognition systems. - Secondary
scent marking and intrasexual competition. - Reproductive signalling and
synchrony. I conduct gas-chromatography/mass-spectrometry (GCMS) work on mongoose anal gland secretions in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Peter Rüedi in the Organic Chemistry Institute of the University of Zürich. Preliminary work on the information content of mongoose urine is also underway in collaboration with Prof. Jane Hurst and Prof. Rob Beynon at the University of Liverpool.
Plowman, A.B., Jordan,
N.R, Anderson, N., Condon, E. and Fraser, O. 2005. Welfare
implications of
captive primate population management: behavioural and psycho-social
effects of
female-based contraception, oestrous and male removal in hamadryas
baboons (Papio hamadryas). Applied Animal
Behaviour Science 90, 155-165. [PDF] Russell, A.F., Carlson, A.A., McIlrath, G.M., Clutton-Brock, T.H., Russell, A.F., Sharpe, L.L.
& Jordan, N.R. 2005. 'False-feeding' and
aggression in meerkat societies. Animal
Behaviour 69, 1273-1284. [PDF] Carlson, A.A., Manser, M.B., Young, A.J., Russell,
A.F., Carlson, A.A., Russell, A.F., Young, A.J., Russell, A.F., Young, A.J., Spong, G., Clutton-Brock, T.H., Hodge, S.J., Spong, G.,
Russell, A.F.,
Golabek, K.A., Jordan,
N.R. & Clutton-Brock,
T.H. 2008. Radiocollars do not affect the survival or foraging
behaviour of wild meerkats. Journal
of Zoology, 274, 248-253. [PDF]
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