Just as the title suggests, how do animals that will run other animals out of their territory define where the territory starts and stops? With humans we have very obvious signs such as fences and borders to define territories. How does it work with less intelligent animals?
In: Biology
A lot of it is scent marking.
I prefer No Trespassing signs to sniffing around for the scent of farmer piss.
Feces and urine. Animals have an incredible sense of smell. Their territory is wherever carry their scent.
Smell and poop. A lot of animals will rub or spray certain areas to show it’s theirs. Others do it with their pee and poop.
Imagine if you could smell a killers odour or just a rival. It works like that.
Depends on the animal, but typically with scents and noises.
Wolves and lions have glands that add scents to their urine. That’s why male dogs often lift their leg to pee on something tall like a tree, to get that urine as high up as possible so the smell spreads a little bit farther and other “””wolves””” will know it’s their territory. House cats have glands in their cheeks that secrete a waxy scent marker. That’s why they rub their faces all over everything and you may even see dark patches forming where your cat prefers to rub its scent.
When another from that species comes along, they smell that scent and know that it’s the territory of the animal that left the scent. The scents can give additional information like gender, age, even general reproductive fitness. Many female animals leave behind scent markers indicating that they’re in heat.
Some animals use sounds. Wolves howl to alert other wolves that they’re around, and lions roar to warn off males that might be getting too close. Elephants can sense vibrations in their feet and will stamp hard enough for elephants to “hear” it miles and miles away through the ground. When male gorillas beat on their chest, they inhale deeply so their chest becomes like a hollow drum and resonates to make the sound louder and deeper so it travels farther.
Some animals leave behind visible marks. Bull elephants will use their tusks to leave gouges on trees that other bulls will see. They may not know *whose* territory it is, but they will know that there’s a bull around. Similarly, many big cats like lions and tigers (and house cats) will leave claw marks in trees (although this also helps them sharpen their claws).
I don’t know the answer but people seem to be focusing on the method used to define the territory where I believe the OP is asking how the animal determines this tree marks the boundary vs that tree…
Smell usually.
They urinate, or rub scent glands on trees, plants, rocks etc to mark the bounds.
Note that cats can form complex boundaries. They for example “agree” that the passageway behind the houses belong to no-cat and is shared, but that as soon as you enter a garden you get attacked.
In the end you control that which you can defend. Urban jungles already have lots of natural markers which animals use as boundaries. Defending a flat plain requires lots of patrolling. Defending an enclosed valley (or a walled garden) is much easier.
The only advantage people have is we reshape the landscape to make it easier to defend. Animals just have to do with what there is.
Latest Answers