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Male dingo urinary scents code for age class and wild dingoes respond to this information

Walker, Benjamin J. J., UNSW Sydney, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0279-193X
Letnic, Mike, UNSW Sydney
Bucknall, Martin P., UNSW Sydney
Watson, Lyn, Dingo Discovery and Research Centre
Jordan, Neil R., UNSW Sydney
bjjwalker1@gmail.com
Published Mar 14, 2024 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ttdz08m3d

Cite this dataset

Walker, Benjamin J. J. et al. (2024). Male dingo urinary scents code for age class and wild dingoes respond to this information [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ttdz08m3d

Abstract

Chemical information in canid urine has been implicated in territoriality and influences the spacing of individuals. We identified the key volatile organic compound (VOC) components in dingo (Canis lupus dingo) urine and investigated the potential role of scents in territorial spacing. VOC analysis, using headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), demonstrated that the information in fresh urine from adult male dingoes was sufficient to allow statistical classification into age categories. Discriminant function analyses demonstrated that the relative amounts or combinations of key VOCs from pre-prime (3-4 years), prime (5-9 years), and post-prime (≥10 years) males varied between these age categories, and that scents exposed to the environment for 4 (but not 33) days could still be classified to age categories. Further, a field experiment showed that dingoes spent less time in the vicinity of prime male dingo scents than other scents. Collectively, these results indicate that age-related scent differences may be discriminable by dingoes. Previous authors have suggested the potential to use scent as a management tool for wild canids by creating an artificial territorial boundary/barrier. Our results suggest that identifying the specific signals in prime-age male scents could facilitate the development of scent-based tools for non-lethal management.

README: Data and code from: Male dingo urinary scents code for age class and wild dingoes respond to this information

Citation of paper:

  • Benjamin J J Walker, Mike Letnic, Martin P Bucknall, Lyn Watson, Neil R Jordan, Male dingo urinary scents code for age class and wild dingoes respond to this information, Chemical Senses, Volume 49, 2024, bjae004, https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjae004

DOI of data:

Description of the Data and file structure

The data contains chemical and bioassay information about 27 dingo scent marks and related ecological and biological information. The quarto file contains all the code used to analyse the data and generate the figures in the manuscript.

Contents:

Excel Data File (Data_Walker-et-al_2024_doi_10.1093-chemse-bjae004.xlsx) => excel file containing the datasets which were used to analyse:
Sheet 1 (Response): responses of dingoes to presented scent marks for the bioassay. (*Note: rows 26-28 of columns "Sniff.Dur", "T.Down.C", "T.Mid.C", and "T.Up.C" are blank to facilitate analysis);
  • Variables:
    • Treatment; one of t0, t4, or t33. t = time, # = number of days
    • AgeDem: one of pre-prime, prime, post-prime. Each category represents an age grouping (the dingo signaler age (pre-prime (3–4 years), prime (5–9 years), and post-prime (≥10 years))
    • Present.Dur: duration of time spent in the vicinity of the scent (seconds), zero placed in cell for rows 26-28 to facilitate analysis
    • Investigate: binary (0/1), 1 = investigation, zero placed in cell for rows 26-28 to facilitate analysis
    • Sniff.Dur: duration of time spent sniffing scent (seconds), rows 26-28 are blank to facilitate analysis*
    • T.Down.C: binary (0/1), 1 = tail down between legs, rows 26-28 are blank to facilitate analysis*
    • T.Mid.C: binary (0/1), 1 = tail horizontal, rows 26-28 are blank to facilitate analysis*
    • T.Up.C: binary (0/1), 1 = tail raised up, rows 26-28 are blank to facilitate analysis*
    • Raised: binary (0/1), 1 = tail raised up, same as T.Up.C, but zeros were placed in cells for rows 26-28 to facilitate analysis
Sheet 2 (Revisitation): delay (days) between dingo revisitations to a scent, between the first visit and the second visit;
  • Variables:
    • AgeDem: one of pre-prime, prime, post-prime. Each category represents an age grouping (the dingo signaler age (pre-prime (3–4 years), prime (5–9 years), and post-prime (≥10 years))
    • Revisitation: number of days to revisit after first visit
Sheet 3 (Interval): intervisit interval for each site in the bioassay - Investigating factors affecting all intervisit intervals to a scent site (not just the next after initial as above);
  • Variables:
    • AgeDem: one of pre-prime, prime, post-prime. Each category represents an age grouping (the dingo signaler age (pre-prime (3–4 years), prime (5–9 years), and post-prime (≥10 years))
    • InterVisitInterval: all intervisit intervals (not just the next visit after the first visit)
    • Site: Site number, sequential order labelling
Sheet 4 (Fig1): summary statistics for the duration that a wild dingo spent within the camera's field of view (secs);
  • Variables:
    • AgeDem: one of pre-prime, prime, post-prime. Each category represents an age grouping (the dingo signaler age (pre-prime (3–4 years), prime (5–9 years), and post-prime (≥10 years))
    • Mean
    • Standard Deviation
    • Standard Error
Sheet 5 (Fig2): summary statistics for delay (days);
  • Variables:
    • Age.Dem: one of pre-prime, prime, post-prime. Each category represents an age grouping (the dingo signaler age (pre-prime (3–4 years), prime (5–9 years), and post-prime (≥10 years))
    • Mean
    • Standard Deviation
    • Standard Error
Sheet 6 (A1): PCA (principal components analysis) matrix for A1 [Analysis 1] (age specificity of scents after 0 days of exposure (i.e. fresh), 3 males per age, 3 ages)
  • Variables:
    • First Column (Age): Labelled groups, one of pre-prime, prime, post-prime
    • Subsequent columns: Numerical label for the chemical components listed in Supplementary Table 2, and relative compound amounts in the sample (relative total ion current (TIC) chromatogram peak areas for each scent component were expressed as a percentage of the summed area from all scent peaks (%TIC)). Nominal values were expressed as 1.0 × e−9. All values in this matrix are log-transformed.
Sheet 7 (A2): PCA matrix for A2 [Analysis 2] (age specificity of scents after 4 days of exposure, 3 males per age, 3 ages)
  • Variables:
    • First Column (Age): Labelled groups, one of pre-prime, prime, post-prime
    • Subsequent columns: Numerical label for the chemical components listed in Supplementary Table 2, and relative compound amounts in the sample (relative total ion current (TIC) chromatogram peak areas for each scent component were expressed as a percentage of the summed area from all scent peaks (%TIC)). Nominal values were expressed as 1.0 × e−9. All values in this matrix are log-transformed.
Sheet 8 (A3): PCA matrix for A3 [Analysis 3] (age specificity of scents after 33 days of exposure, 3 males per age, 3 ages)
  • Variables:
    • First Column (Age): Labelled groups, one of pre-prime, prime, post-prime
    • Subsequent columns: Numerical label for the chemical components listed in Supplementary Table 2, and relative compound amounts in the sample (relative total ion current (TIC) chromatogram peak areas for each scent component were expressed as a percentage of the summed area from all scent peaks (%TIC)). Nominal values were expressed as 1.0 × e−9. All values in this matrix are log-transformed.
Sheet 9 (A5): PCA matrix for A5 [Analysis 5] (Classification of scents into different exposure treatments; 27 samples, 9 of each treatment (9 x t0 [time 0], 9 x t4 [time 4], 9 x t33 [time 33]) within each treatment balance of 3 males in each category, 3 pre, 3 post, 3 prime)
  • Variables:
    • Treatment: categorical label, one of 0, 4, or 33 days.
    • Subsequent columns: Numerical label for the chemical components listed in Supplementary Table 2, and relative compound amounts in the sample (relative total ion current (TIC) chromatogram peak areas for each scent component were expressed as a percentage of the summed area from all scent peaks (%TIC)). Nominal values were expressed as 1.0 × e−9. All values in this matrix are log-transformed.
Sheet 10 (A6): PCA matrix for A6 [Analysis 6] (Looking at what happens if we only consider classification using components that are present in all three exposure treatments. This is a more realistic scenario of age coding, as the same components could be used to age the donor.)
  • Variables:
    • First Column (Age): Labelled groups, one of pre-prime, prime, post-prime
    • Subsequent columns: Numerical label for the chemical components listed in Supplementary Table 2, and relative compound amounts in the sample (relative total ion current (TIC) chromatogram peak areas for each scent component were expressed as a percentage of the summed area from all scent peaks (%TIC)). Nominal values were expressed as 1.0 × e−9. All values in this matrix are log-transformed.

Sharing/Access Information

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Funding

UNSW Sydney, Faculty Research Grant

UNSW Sydney, Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Facility 200-Hour Honours Project Scholarship