Abstract
The study on behavior and chemical analysis of urinary pheromone of Indian Porcupine, Hystrix brachyura (Linn. 1758) was performed during 2011–2014 in different phases at a rehabilitation Center near Kolkata, India. Ethological data based on five porcupines, including both male and female in different combinations revealed that urine and feces are deposited non-randomly at specific sites. The male collected urine in the hollow quills of the tail and sprayed it nearby for transmission of chemical information for social interactions. Males also sniffed and licked female urine. We identified urine and hollow quill, as the possible vectors of transmission of this information. Phenol, cresol and phenylacetylene were identified from the hexane extract of female urine and benzaldehyde, cresol and methyl cyclohexane from the male urine by Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GCMS). Two isomeric compounds o- and p-cresol were identified from both the sexes by High Performance Liquid Chromatography. Thin Layer Chromatography showed the presence of triglycerides and diglycerides in the urine which might act as fixatives.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the financial help from DST-FIST programme, Government of India of Department of Botany, University of Calcutta for GCMS and HPLC facilities. We are thankful to our colleague Dr. Paramaa Raha for providing us with some important photographs. We are indebted to the PCCF, West Bengal and DFO, Howrah, Department of Forests, the Government of West Bengal, India for their kind cooperation. We are grateful to our field biologist friend Dr. Nilansu Das for his valuable comments and suggestions.
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Ghosh, B., Poddar-Sarkar, M., Ray, S., Brahmachary, R.L. (2016). Putative Pheromone of the Indian Crestless Porcupine, Hystrix brachyura . In: Schulte, B., Goodwin, T., Ferkin, M. (eds) Chemical Signals in Vertebrates 13. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22026-0_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22026-0_10
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