Multimodal signalling reinforces specific messages in communication. In gopher tortoises, similar to other reptilian species, visualization of conspecific and chemical exudates from the skin may serve as a multimodal display advertising information about conspecific species, sex, or individual qualities, but this has not been fully elucidated. For gopher tortoises, one such possible source of chemical cues could be secretions from seasonally enlarged mental glands (MG). Here, we used both sexes of gopher tortoises in a paired choice presentation of MG secretions vs. distilled (DI) water on resin tortoise models to assess visual presence with tortoise-specific secretions. We examined behaviours to treatments to examine if MG secretions are recognizable olfactory cues and if visual cues alone are sufficient to maintain social interactions using a simple visual presentation vs. a complex visual and olfactory presentation. Tortoises of both sexes spent more total time (p < 0.001) and performed a greater number of behaviours (p < 0.001) towards the MG-treated model, relative to the neutral control (DI-treated model), suggesting that olfactory MG secretions are also required, along with visual presence of a tortoise, to engage in social behaviours. Our results are among the first for this species suggesting that pheromone usage may drive social interactions in social behaviours.

多模式信令增强了通信中的特定消息。在地鼠龟中，与其他爬虫类动物相似，从皮肤上观察到特定物种和化学分泌物的可视化可以用作多模式展示，以宣传有关特定物种，性别或个体品质的信息，但这尚未完全阐明。对于地鼠而言，化学线索的一种可能来源可能是季节性增大的精神腺（MG）的分泌物。在这里，我们在树脂龟模型上使用了MG分泌物与蒸馏水（DI）的配对选择表示的地鼠龟的两性，以评估龟特定分泌物的视觉存在。我们检查了治疗的行为，以检查MG分泌物是否是可识别的嗅觉提示，以及仅视觉提示是否足以通过简单的视觉呈现与复杂的视觉和嗅觉呈现来维持社交互动。男女乌龟花费的总时间更长（p  <0.001），并且 相对于中性对照（DI处理的模型），对MG治疗的模型表现出更多的行为（p <0.001），这表明嗅觉的MG分泌也是必需的，并且肉眼可见a乌龟，从事社会行为。我们的结果是该物种的第一个结果，表明信息素的使用可能会推动社交行为中的社交互动。