COLONY MEMBER RECOGNITION AND XENOPHOBIA IN THE NAKED MOLE-RAT

The ability of naked mole-rats, Heterocephalus glaber, to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics and their response to in truders was investigated. Odour cues used by mole-rats in recognition contexts were identified in a three-way choice apparatus and 'decision rules' for accepting or rejecting conspecifics were explored in a ser ies of odour manipulation experiments. Naked mole-rats were highly xen ophobic, even to closely related foreign conspecifics, and a division of labour existed amongst the non-breeders in colony defence. The prin cipal mechanism of recognition appeared to be distinct colony odour la bels, contributed by each colony member and distributed among, and lea rned by, all colony members. Differences in the mixture of these odour s may provide even genetically similar colonies with a unique odour la bel. These odours persisted despite controlling for exogenous cues. Fi tness consequences of these phenomena are interpreted with respect to the need for closely related neighbouring colonies to maintain autonom y and the importance of excluding foreign competitors from within-colo ny rivalry for reproductive succession. (C) 1997 The Association for t he Study of Animal Behaviour.