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First published online November 19, 2007
Journal of Experimental Biology 210, 4169-4178 (2007)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2007
doi: 10.1242/jeb.012237

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Olfactory sensitivity for putrefaction-associated thiols and indols in three species of non-human primate

Matthias Laska^1,*, Rosa Mariela Rivas Bautista², Daniela Höfelmann³, Vera Sterlemann³ and Laura Teresa Hernandez Salazar²

¹ IFM Biology, Linköping University, 581 83 Linköping, Sweden
² Instituto de Neuro-Etologia, Universidad Veracruzana, 91000 Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico
³ Department of Medical Psychology, University of Munich, 80336 Munich, Germany

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: malas{at}ifm.liu.se)

Accepted 20 September 2007

Using a conditioning paradigm, the olfactory sensitivity of four spider monkeys, three squirrel monkeys and three pigtail macaques to four thiols and two indols, substances characteristic of putrefaction processes and faecal odours, was assessed. With all odorants, the animals significantly discriminated concentrations below 1 p.p.m. (part per million) from the odourless solvent, and in several cases individual animals even demonstrated thresholds below 1 p.p.t. (part per trillion). The detection thresholds of 0.03 p.p.t. for indol in Saimiri sciureus and Macaca nemestrina and 0.96 p.p.t. for ethanethiol in Ateles geoffroyi represent the lowest values among the more than 50 odorants tested so far with these species and are in the same order of magnitude as the lowest detection thresholds reported so far in the rat and the mouse. The results showed (a) all three species of non-human primate to have a highly developed olfactory sensitivity for putrefaction-associated odorants, and (b) a significant correlation between perceptibility in terms of olfactory detection threshold and carbon chain length of the thiols, and a marked effect of the presence vs absence of a methyl group on perceptibility of the indols tested in two of the three species. The results support the hypotheses that (a) between-species differences in neuroanatomical or genetic features may not be indicative of olfactory sensitivity, and (b) within-species differences in olfactory sensitivity may reflect differences in the behavioural relevance of odorants.

Key words: olfactory sensitivity, detection thresholds, non-human primates, thiols, indols, putrefaction