Odor signals in wild western lowland gorillas: an involuntary and extra-group communication hypothesis

Odors constitute one of the most ancient ways of communication among animals. Whereas the key role of olfactory communication is well established in insects or rodents, its contribution to primate behavior remains very speculative. In a recent report, Klailova and Lee [1] studied the variations of intensity of the typical steroid musk odor produced by wild adult male gorilla silverbacks during encounters with opponents from other social units (lone males or other groups). The odor intensity increased in situations of potential conflicts, when the silverback encountered another male gorilla, which constitutes a potential threat for his infants and mate competitor for his females. Importantly, the odor intensity was greater when the silverback reacted with a demonstrative threat display, and milder when he decided to react quietly and avoid the conflict by sneaking away. According to the authors, this indicates that silverback gorillas can flexibly adjust the odor signal to the social context, and the mild signal associated with the quiet response is used within the silverback's group to promote cohesion. Rather, based on both physiological and behavioral data, we propose that (1) the odor intensity varies monotonically with arousal, across all situations, and (2) that the function of the odor signal is most relevant for the interactions between males of different groups. In such framework, the odor stimulus might also constitute a non-visual signal indicator of the emitter's identity, and therefore play a role in the regulation of the interactions with other gorillas. Establishing the balance among those potential functions is critical to understand the role of odors in the regulation of social and ecological interactions in primates.