Male behavioral response to the urine odor of females in lesser mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus Miller, 1777)(Cheirogaleidae, Primates)

Chemical signals play an important role in Microcebus murinus Miller, 1777 social communication, a representative species of prosimians. It presents the major and vomeronasal olfactory systems and uses mainly urine for chemical marking. I studied the effect of females’ urine on the behavior of 14 males in 3 group conditions: intact, vomeronasalectomized (VNx) and bulbectomized (Bx). Stimuli presented were pro-estrus female’s urine, post-estrus female’s urine, distilled water and female’s presence. The groups were submitted to two phases: familiarization in the cage (3 days), and experimental stage (4 days) when each stimulus was presented for 30 min once a day. Results showed that intact males could discriminate different chemical stimuli; VNx males continued to discriminate stimuli using the major olfactory system but not as efficiently as intact animals; Bx animals did not perform any olfactory discrimination. The reduction in olfactory discrimination by VNx and Bx males may have been due to a central action of bulb activity