Recognition of prey odor in wild meerkats

Meerkats (Suricata suricatta) are able to detect hidden food using olfactory cues alone

Meerkats (Suricata suricatta) are known to strongly rely on chemical signals for social communication. However, little is known about their use of the sense of smell in foraging and food detection. The aim of the present study was therefore to assess whether captive meerkats are able to (1) detect hidden food using olfactory cues alone, (2) discriminate between the odor of real food and a single food odor component, and (3) build an association between the odor of real food and a novel odor. We employed the buried food test, widely used with rodents to assess basic olfactory abilities and designed to take advantage of the propensity of certain species to dig. We found that the meerkats were clearly able to find all four food types tested (mouse, chicken, mealworm, banana) using olfactory cues alone and that they successfully discriminated between the odor of real food (banana) and a food odor component (iso-pentyl acetate). In both tasks, the animals dug in the food-bearing corner of the test arena as the first one significantly more often than in the other three corners. No significant association-building between a food odor and a novel odor was found within the 60 trials performed per animal. We conclude that meerkats are able to use olfactory cues when foraging for hidden food. Further, we conclude that the buried food test, employed for the first time with a non-rodent species, is a useful means of assessing basic olfactory capabilities in meerkats.

Attractant or Repellent? Behavioral Responses to Mammalian Blood Odor and to a Blood Odor Component in a Mesopredator, the Meerkat (Suricata suricatta)

It is well-established that the odor of mammalian blood is attractive to top predators such as tigers and wolves and aversive to prey species such as mice and rats. Recent studies have shown that the mammalian blood odor component trans-4,5-epoxy-(E)-2-decenal (TED) elicits corresponding behavioral responses in these two groups of mammals. Here we assess whether a mesopredator, that is, a small-bodied carnivorous mammal that is both predator and prey, is attracted to or repelled by the odor of mammalian blood and TED. To this end, we assessed the behavior of a group of 15 captive meerkats (Suricata suricatta) when presented with wooden logs that were impregnated either with horse blood or with TED, and compared it to their behavior toward a fruity odor (iso-pentyl acetate) and a near-odorless solvent (diethyl phthalate). We found that the meerkats displayed significantly more interactions with the odorized wooden logs such as sniffing and pawing when these were impregnated with the two prey-associated odors compared to the two non-prey-associated odors. Most importantly, no significant difference was found in the number of interactions with the wooden logs impregnated with horse blood and TED, respectively. These results demonstrate that meerkats, despite being small-bodied mesopredators, are clearly attracted to the odor of mammalian blood. Further, the results suggest that a single blood odor component can be as efficient as the odor of real blood in eliciting behavioral responses in this herpestid mammal, similar to previous findings in feline and canine top predators.