Abstrakt
Diet appears to be a key factor influencing individual chemical profiles in various vertebrate species, and may thus affect perception by conspecifics. The specific chemical components in diet or their metabolites are either excreted in urine or faeces or from skin glands.
If such chemicals are derived from food and cannot be synthesized by the organism, or if the corresponding foods are difficult to obtain, these dietary components may serve as cues to foraging ability and/or nutritional status of the individual. Several studies ranging from fish to mammals have found that food deprivation or quality of diet (e.g. protein content) affect olfactory attractiveness of the producer, as assessed by opposite-sex conspecifics.
Finally, diet-associated compounds also influence perception of species recognition and individual odour signatures with potential to both strengthen and weaken recognition. These effects of diet are involved in various social contexts including mate choice, social affiliation, and kin and parent-offspring recognition.
We discuss these phenomena from the perspective of signal evolution.