For a start, it is the females that do the majority of territorial defence. They have well-developed scent glands and produce more chemical signals than the males – the reverse of what you’d expect. They seem to be more interested in the scent of their own sex than males, especially breeding females. The healthiest females produce a lot of fatty acid esters, which are a signal they are strong and sexy. Again, this is something normally only done by males. It suggests their scented signals are probably linked to competition with other females, while males don’t pose much of a threat to them and
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