The influences of evolution, habitat and social organisation upon chemical signalling in deer

This thesis investigates the influences of evolution, social organisation and habitat preference upon social communication in animals. The deer species found in Britain (red, sika, fallow, roe, muntjac and Chinese water deer) represent a wide range from the family Cervidae in terms of evolutionary status, social organisation and habitat preference. The development and use of one mode of communication, olfaction, within these species were explored by (a) the determination of the potential information available from scent gland secretions, (b) the assessment of whether conspecifics use that information and (c) the assessment of the significance of olfaction in the overall framework of social interaction.The potential information content of secretions from one or more scent glands from each species was determined by capillary gas chromatography. The use of that potential information and significance of olfaction overall was examined by behavioural studies of fallow deer.Individually unique chemical signals were found in the pre-orbital gland secretions of muntjac, Chinese water deer and red deer, in the interdigital gland secretion of roe deer and in the metatarsal gland samples from fallow and sika deer. Distinctive secretions were also detected within species for animals of a particular character or class: muntjac pre-orbital glands differed consistently by population and sex; red deer pre-orbital glands by sex and age; roe deer metatarsal glands by sex and age. Possible classification of sika deer metatarsal glands by population or sex was confounded by sample bias. No potential information whatsoever was detected in the fallow deer pre-orbital glands whilst the metatarsal glands secretions were not distinctive according to any class of animal.