Professor Jo Setchell (Durham University) - A resplendent mammal: Sexual selection and multi-modal signalling in mandrills

The question of why some animals are extravagantly ornamented has long fascinated scientists. Recent attention has focussed on the question of why animals might possess multiple such traits. Darwin noted that the resplendent colours of the male mandrill compare with those of the most brilliant birds. Extremely unusually for Old World primates, mandrills also possess a sternal scent gland, which they rub vigorously against trees. I will use long-term studies, and a multi-disciplinary approach that integrates field observations with laboratory methods including immunogenetics and semiochemistry, to shed light on whether variation in these different modalities (visual and chemical) signals the same or different information about the signaller.