Scent Marking Observation

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(4) Scent marking: In mammals scent marking by urination has long been recognized as an important form of communication in different social contexts. The rural study site was selected for this part of the study. Observations were conducted 3 days and u/ere made on foot or on bicycles from a safe distance. Care was taken so that the normal activities of the dogs were not disturbed due to observation activities of the investigator. Normally dogs were seen to scent mark by urination on herbs, bushes, tree-trunks, stones, pillars, lamp-posts, concrete walls and on vehicles. With a view to determine the scent marking frequency 32 individually identified dogs were observed during their day time foraging. The duration of their foraging activity, the…show more content…
They took rice, vegetables and freshly cut small pieces of entrails by lowering their heads with the help of tongue and swallowed them without much perceptible chewing. In the process they repeatedly licked their upper lip on both sides. In case of larger pieces of bread and particularly meat and bones they grasped the item in the jaws and then placed the pieces between the canine and the carnassial teeth with the help of tongue and repeatedly chewed them until the pieces were cut into smaller ones in order to facilitate swallowing. Dogs were observed to feed on carcasses of goats, cows or other bovines whenever these were available. They tore the muscles with the canines when their heads were held downwardly and laterally and their canines were exposed as the upper lips were vertically contracted, while consuming human faces they appeared to lick the faecal matter into the mouth. Table 2 show average amount of food consumed by the stray dog (N=50). The result shows that dogs consumed greater amount of cooked food than that of flash and entrails. Availability of cooked food was higher as these were regularly thrown out by the house owners and hotels,' Flesh, bones or entrails were not regularly available in the village. These were thrown out from the butchers' shop in village market at particular times. For this reason average number of feeds per day per dog was higher in case of cooked food than flesh and entrails which are available only periodically. It is evident that a dog consumed higher amount of cooked food in each
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