Patterns of scent marking by African wild dogs, Lycaon pictus, at shared marking sites

Individual patterns of scent marking can aid our understanding of the function of animal latrines. African wild dogs are pack-living social carnivores that regularly visit latrines, called shared marking sites, used by multiple neighbouring packs. Here we analysed scent marking by individual African wild dogs video captured at continuously monitored marking sites. Scent marking differed by sex and dominance status depending on social context (interpack versus intrapack exchanges). Dominants marked more frequently than subdominants, and patterns, particularly the order of overmarking, differed between the sexes. Dominant females were more likely than dominant males to overmark when the previous scent mark had been left by an individual from a different pack. Dominant males were more likely to leave the final, or top mark, regardless of social context or origin. Results are consistent with a resource defence advertisement function for wild dog latrines. However, sex-specific scent marking suggests the resource defended may differ between dominant females, which are more attentive to interpack scent marks, and dominant males, which are focused on overmarking a mate. The pattern of dominant male scent marking indicates that unambiguous advertisement of a bonded reproductive pair may be a critical component of communicating with neighbours about pack residence and territoriality.(c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/).