The territories of African wild dogs are vast, on the order of hundreds of square miles. Consequently, wild dogs were often described as nomadic and unpredictable in time and space. It’s true that it can be very difficult to find them because of their wide ranging and huge territories. But this paper, which describes how they scent mark at specific sites, definitively dispels the notion that African wild dogs are nomadic or even semi-nomadic. It also describes the important clues that will help researchers keep tabs on them.
The paper shows that neighbouring wild dog packs use the same latrines; what we now call ‘shared scent marking sites (SMS). Not only that, but they use them frequently and regularly and over long periods of time. Not just months, but for years. This means that, if you know where the SMS are, you know where to look for dogs. This bit of information vastly improves the chances of finding them from the alternative outdated perception that their ranging behaviour and daily movements were random in vast territories.
This may seem simple, but in the world of wild dogs and wild dog field research, this is a game-changer. Not only do we know where to look for them now, but, if we monitor and record behaviours at these marking sites using camera traps, we are able to document important pack dynamics and social structures we otherwise rarely observe.
Once we realized the significance of these SMS, we did exactly that: we set up cameras at marking sites where we recorded thousands of video clips over several years of visits to these sites, including some interesting and previously undocumented scent marking patterns. We now know, for example, that wild dogs use these sites throughout the year, even during the three months of denning when they are restricted to ranging in a fraction of their territory.
Why is that interesting? Because the energy spent in maintaining fresh scent marks at SMS strongly suggests these are key to territorial communication among neighbouring resident packs. This is a crucial finding because it enables us to focus efforts on the chemistry of specific scent marks for analysis into how packs communicate about territory boundaries.
Understanding how wild dogs 'talk to each other’, and how they maintain their territories, is the focus of our BioBoundary Research, which aims to identify the chemistry of these signals in order to use this information to manage wild dog ranging behaviour with synthetic scent marks (i.e., to keep wild dogs out of livestock areas and away from often fatal human wildlife conflict (click here to read more about the BioBoundary project). Creating a successful BioBoundary will likely be increasingly important for the conservation of this endangered and persecuted predator as human populations grow and habitat decreases.
In addition to knowing that SMS locations are where wild dogs communicate directly, pack to pack, we also know more about what characteristics in a landscape wild dogs use to establish an SMS. They are often close to roads (and well used game trails) and away from grasslands and permanent water. This makes sense, as wild dogs (and other predators) like to travel on well-established vehicle tracks which are basically “wide elephant trails”. So, it’s understandable to place communication hotspots where other dogs are likely to encounter find them.
Why do they like to travel on dirt roads? Because, in addition to the communication networks based on strategically located SMS, they are relatively safe due to good visibility, and easy to run along. The risks of being ambushed by lions on open dirt roads is pretty low for a pack of wild dogs.
Another important result from this research into SMS, is that not only do resident packs mark at these marking sites, but so too do dispersing dogs! Their engagement with SMS indicates a complex and multifunctional importance to these communication hubs, or hotspots. We can assume that residents are signaling their presence and, by extension, their willingness to defend their territory from intruders. But dispersing groups of same sex individuals must be visiting SMS to glean information about where they might find potential mates to start their own packs.
The sociality of a wild dog population is complicated, but we know one thing for certain: they understand their world through their noses as much as we do with our eyes. And we are only beginning to scratch the surface of understanding that complex chemical world.
From: 2024 Claase, M., Cherry, M.I., Hofmann, D.D., Apps, P.J., McNutt, J.W., Jordan, N. R. Patterns of scent-marking by African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) at shared marking sites. Animal Behav. 207:77-86 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2023.10.012
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