Reactions of stoats (Mustela erminea) to male human scent

ABSTRACT The risk that stoats can detect, and become averse to, human scent on traps, baits and tracking tunnels is an important but unsolved question. In this pilot study, the scent marking behaviour of three female and five male captive stoats was observed in response to three experimental scents, two neutral and one potentially significant, introduced into their home cages. Each stoat was presented with a random sequence of three scents rubbed onto a plastic refuge tube within the cage: (1) a clean, washed tube; (2) goat odour, expected to be perceptible by the stoat but not threatening to it; (3) the body scent of male humans (because all eight stoats were accustomed to being fed by a female human carer). We observed scent marking behaviours such as tube sniffing, anal gland marking and body rubbing during all trials. When the treatment tube was rubbed with ‘male human odour’, stoats reacted strongly and more often, both by more vigorous anal gland marking and also by adding head-rubbing behaviours which normally convey an agonistic response. These results suggest that an extensive field trial could be justified to check whether this response might indicate the reactions of wild stoats towards traps.