The Allure of Scent Marking

Deep in the coldest months of winter, when you’d think every animal is single-mindedly focused on survival, some predators are being distracted by an equally compelling urge–mating. Even as the snow flies, time spent hunting decreases and behaviors connected with reproduction become more predominant. For the tracker one of the best signs of this change is an increase in scent marking. I followed a red fox trail recently, and she was detouring to urinate on raised features like this stump every 500 feet or

so. I say she because the arrangement of tracks and the placement of the urine could only have been done by a female fox. In the photo the small spots in the left half of the stump are urine (you can ignore the dark chunk of bark near the center). The fox came in from the lower left, paused on the upper side of the stump to pee, and proceeded towards the upper right. The more deeply impressed track marked SF was made by the supporting rear foot (the left) while the right rear was raised. During mating season red fox urine has a strong, slightly skunky–but not unpleasant–odor that is obvious even to us smell-challenged humans. So as I followed the trail the air was perfumed with fox musk.

My dog Banjo (dogs are great teachers for wild canine behaviors) demonstrates the technique in the photo below, supporting her weight on her right rear foot plus the two front feet and positioning her left rear leg up and forward. You can actually see the urine squirting downward under her rear end.

Male canines also raise a rear leg when they urinate, but the leg is held out and back, and the urine goes out to the side rather than downward. I don’t currently have a male dog so I can’t show you that, but I’m sure you can imagine the posture. A male coyote, traveling from left to right,

made the scent mark above, supporting its weight on the right rear foot (the track at the lower center) and shooting the urine sideways onto the upper part of the stump. Coyote urine has a mild odor and isn’t nearly as detectable by humans as fox urine is.

Bobcats also feel the mating urge in the winter, and again, those who have house cats, especially males, may have observed the technique. A male bobcat left its signature on the log in the photo below, coming in from the top of the frame, depositing its message, and leaving at the lower left.

It first gave the log a good sniff (revealed by the front print facing the log), then turned so its rear was facing the wood and sprayed urine backwards. Here’s the photo again with the tracks marked.

S denotes where the bobcat placed a front foot as it sniffed the log. RH, LH, RF and LF show the four feet in a squared posture as the cat faced away from the log and urinated backwards. Bobcat urine, like house cat urine, has a strong odor of ammonia, so if you had been there to sniff the side of the log you would have detected the cat-box odor. Female bobcats also scent mark, mostly downward from a squatting position.

Scent marking by wild canids and felids continues through pair formation, den preparation, and birthing. Soon after that hunting begins to regain its importance as the pressure to provide food for the growing young increases. But the timing of reproduction isn’t accidental. The earlier onset of predator reproduction means that their greatest need for food coincides with the greatest abundance of prey animals, which mostly mated in early spring and multiply during spring and summer.