Search results for "Oryctolagus cuniculus"
showing 10 items of 13 documents
Identifying fossil rabbit warrens: Insights from a taphonomical analysis of a modern warren
2016
14 pages; International audience; The European rabbit is a small burrowing mammal that is particularly abundant in Western Europe since the Pleistocene and introduced around the world over the last few centuries. Rabbit bones are regularly recovered from archaeological and palaeontological sites; however, demonstrating their contemporaneity with associated material is often difficult. Additionally, determining the origin of rabbit remains in fossil sites is equally problematic due to the lack of reference collections for natural accumulations. In order to address these issues, we excavated a modern rabbit warren in southwestern France using modern archaeological field methods and techniques…
mtDNA diversity in rabbit population from Sicily (Italy)
2017
The European rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus (O.c) lives all over the world and it represents an important resource for many predators. It has been classified as a Near-Threatened species in the Red List of Vertebrates of Italy. It is present in mediterranean basin as two known subspecies: O.c. cuniculus and O.c. algirus. The mediterranean geographic distribution of the two subspecies is still not well known. In particular, in Sicily, lacking of deep studies, is based on the body size and morphological characteristics; there wasn’t a complete description of the actual existing subspecies and previous studies only reported the morphological characteristics of the sicilian rabbit population. In …
Odorant Metabolism Analysis by an Automated Ex Vivo Headspace Gas-Chromatography Method
2015
International audience; In the olfactory epithelium (OE), odorant metabolizing enzymes have the dual function of volatile component detoxification and active clearance of odorants from the perireceptor environment to respectively maintain the integrity of the tissues and the sensitivity of the detection. Although emphasized by recent studies, this enzymatic mechanism is poorly documented in mammals. Thus, olfactory metabolism has been characterized mainly in vitro and for a limited number of odorants. The automated ex vivo headspace gas-chromatography method that was developed here was validated to account for odorant olfactory metabolism. This method easily permits the measurement of the f…
Lièvre et lapin à Regourdou (Montignac-sur-Vézère, Dordogne, France) : études paléontologique et taphonomique de deux accumulations osseuses d’origin…
2015
Since the end of the nineteenth century, a great deal of work studyingsubsistence patterns of prehistoric societies in Western Europe has been done. During the Middle Paleolithic, humanswere interested in small game, particularly the Leporidae, taxa that were abundant in their territories. However,distinguishing the exact nature of their origin in an archaeological site is not an easy task, given that numerous agentscould be responsible for their accumulation (i.e., natural mortality, acquisition by humans and/or other terrestrialcarnivores, or even nocturnal or diurnal raptors). In this contribution, we put forth a new taphonomic and paleontologicalstudy of the leporids of Regourdou, a Mou…
Mammary pheromone-induced odour learning influences sucking behaviour and milk intake in the newborn rabbit
2016
Newborn rabbits, Oryctolagus cuniculus, locate their mother's nipples through typical orocephalic movements elicited by odour stimuli, in particular by the mammary pheromone (MP). The MP also promotes neonatal odour learning: after single pairing with the MP, an initially neutral odorant becomes able to elicit sucking-related head-searching/oral-grasping movements. However, the behavioural significance of the MP-induced odour learning remains poorly understood. We carried out three experiments to explore its influence on milk intake and compare its consequences with those resulting from nursing-induced conditioning. First, pups conditioned to an odorant by pairing with the MP on postnatal d…
From 160 to 20 to 1 odorant: steps in a chemo-ethological strategy to identify a mammalian pheromone
2005
This paper presents the strategy used to fractionate a complex odorant mixture into 20 candidate compounds, to finally single out a compound which activity explains the activity of the whole mixture. The joint chemical-behavioral approach will be outlined, and followed by a description of the experiments permitting to enter the isolated key-compound into the category of biologically-active compounds termed "pheromone".
Proportion of odorants impacts the configural versus elemental perception of a binary blending mixture in newborn rabbits.
2011
WOS: 000295167200002; International audience; Processing of odor mixtures by neonates is weakly understood. Previous studies showed that a binary mixture of ethyl isobutyrate/ethyl maltol (odorants A/B) blends in newborn rabbits at the 30/70 ratio: Pups would perceive a configural odor in addition to the components' odors. Here, we investigated whether the emergence of this additional odor in AB is determined by specific ratio(s) of A and B. To that goal, we tested whether pups discriminated between AB mixtures with lower (A(-)B, 8/92 ratio) or higher (A(+)B, 68/32) proportion of A. In Experiment 1, pups conditioned to A (or B) responded to A(-)B and A(+)B but not to AB. In Experiment 2, pu…
Mammary olfactory signalisation in females and odor processing in neonates: ways evolved by rabbits and humans
2009
International audience; Mammalian females have long been known to release olfactory attraction in their offspring. Mammary odor cues control infant state, attention and directional responses, delay distress responses, stimulate breathing and positive oral actions, and finally can boost learning. Here, we survey female-offspring odor communication in two mammalian species - European rabbits and humans - taken as representatives of evolutionary extremes in terms of structure and dynamics of mother-infant relations, and level of neonatal autonomy. Despite these early psychobiological differences, females in both species have evolved mammary structures combining multiple sources of endogenous a…
Neonatal representation of odour objects: distinct memories of the whole and its parts
2014
Extraction of relevant information from highly complex environments is a prerequisite to survival. Within odour mixtures, such information is contained in the odours of specific elements or in the mixture configuration perceived as a whole unique odour. For instance, an AB mixture of the element A (ethyl isobutyrate) and the element B (ethyl maltol) generates a configural AB percept in humans and apparently in another species, the rabbit. Here, we examined whether the memory of such a configuration is distinct from the memory of the individual odorants. Taking advantage of the newborn rabbit's ability to learn odour mixtures, we combined behavioural and pharmacological tools to specifically…
When the nose must remain responsive: glutathione conjugation of the mammary pheromone in the newborn rabbit
2014
In insects, xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes were demonstrated to regulate pheromones inactivation, clearing them from the olfactory periphery and keeping receptors ready for stimulation renewal. Here, we investigate whether similar processes could occur in mammals, focusing on the pheromonal communication between female rabbits and their newborns. Lactating rabbits emit in their milk a volatile aldehyde, 2-methylbut-2-enal, that elicits searching-grasping in neonates; called the mammary pheromone (MP), it is critical for pups which are constrained to find nipples within the 5 min of daily nursing. For newborns, it is thus essential to remain sensitive to this odorant during the whole nursin…