ArticleScientific reports2017
Histological, chemical and behavioural evidence of pedal communication in brown bears.
Article in Scientific reports, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 90 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exaggerated signaling in a solitary mammal: evidence from brown bears (Journal of mammalogy · 2026Article
- From Rub Tree Prediction to Targeted Genetic Sampling in Brown Bears: Linking Scent-Marking Ecology and Spatial Modelling.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Family Breakup Dynamics in a Promiscuous Solitary Mammal.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Behavioural Correlates of Lemur Scent-Marking in Wild Diademed Sifakas (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Signal detection theory applied to giant pandas: Do pandas go out of their way to make sure their scent marks are found?Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Sex-, age-, and time-specific visual communication in brown bears.Journal of mammalogy · 2023Article
- Brown bear skin-borne secretions display evidence of individuality and age-sex variation.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- The Evanescent Bouquet of Individual Bear Fingerprint.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Non-visual cues and indirect strategies that enable discrimination of asymmetric mates.Ecology and evolution · 2022Review
- Symbiotic microbiota and odor ensure mating in time for giant pandas.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Visual marking in mammals first proved by manipulations of brown bear tree debarking.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Rubbing behavior of European brown bears: factors affecting rub tree selectivity and density.Journal of mammalogy · 2021Article
- Article
- Article
- Conspecific recognition of pedal scent in domestic dogs.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Testicular regulation of seasonal change in apocrine glands in the back skin of the brown bear (Ursus arctos).The Journal of veterinary medical science · 2018Article
- Behaviour-Based Husbandry-A Holistic Approach to the Management of Abnormal Repetitive Behaviors.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2018Article
- Implementing solid phase microextraction (SPME) as a tool to detect volatile compounds produced by giant pandas in the environment.PloS one · 2018Article
- Density-dependent signaling: An alternative hypothesis on the function of chemical signaling in a non-territorial solitary carnivore.PloS one · 2017Article
- Social environment shapes female settlement decisions in a solitary carnivore.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 7 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Most mammals rely upon scent for intraspecific communication. As most bear species have large home ranges and are non-territorial, scent deposit while walking could be an effective way to communicate with conspecifics. Here, we investigate the existence of pedal glands in brown bears and their role in chemical communication from a histological, biochemical and behavioural perspective. We found eccrine glands in footpads, and prominent apocrine and sebaceous glands in the interdigital, metacarpal and metatarsal skin sections. Pedal scent contained 26 compounds including carboxylic acids, important constituents of mammalian secretions. Six of these compounds were exclusive for males. Finally, we describe a specific marking gait recorded in the field, mostly performed by males. Our study supports the existence of chemical communication through pedal marking in brown bears and suggests sex-coding potential of pedal scent.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.