Abstract
Felids urinate and spray ‘Marking Fluid’ for territorial maintenance and to transmit messages of their reproductive status. The very rare Himalayan snow leopard also utilises these two primary modes for chemical communication. The present paper is the first report on the volatiles in urine of snow leopards which were analysed with the help of headspace solid phase micro extraction gas chromatography mass spectrometry. Chemical profiles revealed the presence of numerous low molecular weight compounds with different functional groups like alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, sulphur containing compounds. Many monoterpene alcohols, which are common secondary metabolites of plants, are abundant in the urine collected during the months of October to December, the typical reproductive season of the snow leopard in the Darjeeling hills of the Eastern Himalaya. 6-Methyl-5-hepten-2-one was identified from this felid which has a characteristic odour perceptible by the human nose. Among many sulphur containing compounds, Dimethyl disulfide and Dimethyl trisulfide were common in all urine samples of both sexes. Saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids were also identified from the lipid fraction of the urine which, in nature, may play an important role by increasing the durability of the volatiles.
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Acknowledgements
Author SD [CSIR sanction no-09/0289(0996)/2017-EMR-1], SM [09/0289(1004)/2017-EMR-1] and PD [108(Sanc.)/ST/P/S&T/1G-24/2014] are grateful to Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India and Govt. of West Bengal respectively for providing their fellowships during this work. We would also like to acknowledge the Department of Science and Technology (Fund for Infrastructure development in Science and Technology programme) Govt. of India for extending GCMS facility in the Department of Botany, University of Calcutta. We also acknowledge the kind help and assistance from Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (wildlife), Govt. of West Bengal, and Director of Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, Darjeeling, West Bengal.
Note:
We dedicate this paper to the memory of our mentor Late Prof. R.L. Brahmachary with our deep grief and sorrow. He corrected our initial draft of this manuscript but passed away on 13 February 2018 when we were submitting the final version of this paper.
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Das, S. et al. (2019). Do Urinary Volatiles Carry Communicative Messages in Himalayan Snow Leopards [Panthera uncia, (Schreber, 1775)]?. In: Buesching, C. (eds) Chemical Signals in Vertebrates 14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17616-7_3
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