Visual marking in mammals first proved by manipulations of brown bear tree debarking

• Published in: Scientific Reports
• Main Authors: Penteriani, Vincenzo, González-Bernardo, Enrique, Hartasánchez, Alfonso, Ruiz-Villar, Héctor, Morales-González, Ana, Ordiz, Andrés, Bombieri, Giulia, Diaz García, Juan, Cañedo, David, Bettega, Chiara, Delgado, María Del Mar
• Other Authors: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, GRUPIN, research grant from the Regional Government of Asturias
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2021
• Subjects: Multidisciplinary; Ursus arctos
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-88472-5; http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-88472-5.pdf; http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-88472-5

Abstract The rather limited human ability to understand animal vision and visual signalling has frequently clouded our expectations concerning the visual abilities of other animals. But there are multiple reasons to suspect that visual signalling is more widely employed by animals than previously thought. Because visibility of visual marks depends on the background in which they are seen, species spending most of their time living in dark conditions (e.g., in forests and/or having crepuscular and nocturnal habits) may rely on bright signals to enhance visual display. Here, as a result of experimental manipulations, we present, for the first time ever, evidence supporting the use of a new channel of intraspecific communication by a mammal species, i.e., brown bear Ursus arctos adult males relying on visual marks during mating. Bear reactions to our manipulation suggest that visual signalling could represent a widely overlooked mechanism in mammal communication, which may be more broadly employed than was previously thought.