Article

Agathe S.S. Gervais, MSc Student in the Mammal Research Institute of the University of Pretoria (Lynwood Road, Hatfield, Pretoria, 0083, South Africa); iD ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6065-8790; e-mail: agathegervais24@gmail.com
Alexander R. Braczkowski, PhD, Research fellow at Griffith University's Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security (Ring Road, Nathan Campus, Griffith University, Australia); iD ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0099-7803; email: alexander.braczkowski@gmail.com
Michael J. Somers, PhD, Professor in the Mammal Research Institute of the University of Pretoria (Lynwood Road, Hatfield, Pretoria, 0083, South Africa); iD ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5836-8823; e-mail: michael.somers@up.ac.za

Gervais A.S.S., Braczkowski A.R., Somers M.J. 2026. Macroinvertebrates of Arctic lakes from Kolguev Island (Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia): fauna and driving factors of assemblage diversity. Nature Conservation Research 11(4). https://dx.doi.org/10.24189/ncr.2026.028

Electronic Supplement 1. Additional information for the paper by Gervais et al. (2026) (Link)

Solitary carnivores rely strongly on scent marking to communicate, and can be attracted or repelled by the scents of conspecifics or heterospecifics. We aimed to understand the effects of intra- and interspecific olfactory interactions on Panthera pardus (hereinafter – leopard), and to test whether heterospecific scents could be manipulated as a tool to deter leopards. We monitored leopard scent-marking activity in the Sabi Sands Game Reserve, South Africa, by camera-trapping 43 marking sites (1450 trap nights) over a 61-day period in the 2021 dry season, of which a 38-day experimental phase used 27 sites. We addressed three objectives: (1) characterising the intraspecific communicative functions of marking; (2) evaluating the influence of dominant-competitor scents on leopard behaviour; and (3) assessing the potential of these scents as a deterrent. To simulate the presence of Panthera leo (hereinafter – lion) and Crocuta crocuta (hereinafter – spotted hyena), we added freshly collected scats to treatment sites and compared leopard visit interval, stay duration, and behaviour duration with control sites (no scats) using generalised linear mixed-effects models (GLMEMs). At the intraspecific level, 40% of consecutive visits to marking sites involved leopards of different sexes. Contrary to our prediction of male-dominated marking, females scent marked significantly more than males, suggesting that leopard scent marks serve both mating and territorial-advertisement functions. Contrary to our prediction of avoidance, leopard visit frequency was unchanged at sites with lion scats, although stay duration was significantly longer, suggesting a more complex olfactory response than simple avoidance. Our results support the prediction that leopards use scent-marking sites to gather information about neighbouring conspecifics and lions and to signal their own presence. We did not find strong evidence that lion or spotted hyena scats can deter leopards or be used as a wildlife-management tool. These findings highlight the role of olfactory communication in territorial behaviour and both its potential and its limitations for conservation.

behavioural ecology, dear enemy effect, generalised linear mixed-effects models, intraguild interactions, translocated faeces

Received: 08.10.2024. Revised: 10.07.2026. Accepted: 31.07.2026.

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