SCENT-MARKING, DOMINANCE AND FLEHMEN BEHAVIOR IN DOMESTIC RABBITS IN AN ARTIFICIAL LABORATORY TERRITORY

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Abstract
The olfactory exploratory and scent-marking behavior of domestic rabbits were observed in an artificial laboratory enclosure. The rabbits tended to mark certain objects more frequently than others with their chin gland secretion (chinning), apparently guided by visual characteristics; however, they preferred to sniff and chin objects which had been chinned previously over those that had never been chinned. They chinned more frequently when faecal pellets were present. Dominant male rabbits chinned objects more frequently, and subordinate male rabbits less frequently, in a freshly marked environment than in a clean one; similarly dominant males chinned more frequently and subordinates less frequently when urine from another rabbit was present. Rabbits preferentially chinned urine and faecal pellets from other rabbits over their own. The dominance relations of the rabbits were determined by analyzing the behavior patterns correlated with chasing and fleeing. One of the most characteristic features of encounters between two rabbits was a complete sexual display. Long periods of sniffing of certain substances, usually urine, by the rabbits were analyzed and found to be basically similar to sniffing and flehmen patterns shown by cats. The data support the hypothesis that the whole flehmen pattern including licking and headshaking is involved with transporting substances in solution to the vomeronasal organ.

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