Tag : Hotspot

Washington: Marking trees are important hotspots of communication for cheetahs: Here they exchange information with and about other cheetahs via scent marks, urine and scats. A team has now shown that several mammalian species on farmland in Namibia maintain a network for intra- and interspecific communication at cheetah trees. Black-backed jackals, African wildcats and warthogs visited and sniffed the cheetahs' 'places to be' more frequently than control trees, the team concluded from photos and videos recorded by wildlife camera traps. A common prey species of the cheetahs, however, avoided these hotspots. Many mammalian species use scent marks, urine or scats to communicate with each other. By doing so, animals leave, receive and exchange information on territory ownership, reproductive receptiveness, health status or diet. Whether and how such olfactory communication is also used by other species than the one having placed the information is not well understood. Scientists from the Leibniz-IZW Cheetah Research Project now observed nine cheetah marking trees and nine similarly looking control trees on farmland in Namibia with wildlife camera traps. They found that some species visited and sniffed cheetah marking trees more frequently than control trees, suggesting they gain important information from cheetah markings. Other species exchanged information at the same frequency at cheetah marking trees and control trees. This indicates that they used prominent trees for their own communication. The scientists concluded that mammals on Namibian farmland maintain communication networks within and between species. During the 65-day survey period, 29 mammalian species visited the cheetah marking and the control trees. There was a higher ...