Synonyms
Sniffing behavior (mammals); Wing fanning (insects); Flicking behavior (crustaceans); Coughing (fishes)
Definition
Odor-sampling designates a behavior by which animals actively collect air-borne or water-borne odor stimulus carrying information from the surroundings, in order to localize and/or identify the source of the emitted odor, and to respond in an adaptive manner (e.g. approach, avoidance) to the stimulation. To collect the odor stimulus, the organism may sniff, flick, fan, cough or bubble (according to the species and the environment), behaviors that consist in the active drive of air or water across or into the olfactory organ (sniffing, fanning, nasal sac compressing - coughing -, bubbling), or in the moving of the organ through the fluid carrying the stimulus (flicking).
Characteristics
Environment as a World of Odors
In the animal kingdom, odors are important vectors of information likely to elicit behavioral decisions supporting adaptive responses to social and...
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References
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Coureaud, G., Datiche, F. (2009). Odor-Sampling Behavior. In: Binder, M.D., Hirokawa, N., Windhorst, U. (eds) Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29678-2_4145
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29678-2_4145
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Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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