# Scent Rubbing in Carnivores

> Why do dogs, hyenas and lions roll on carrion, dung and each other’s scent marks? Drawing on reports of about 45 carnivore species, a 1979 review traces scent rubbing from rolling on food to the cheek rubbing of cats, and argues that the scent animals pick up is a message for others, not a mark they leave behind.

Summary by Kersey Lawrence, Original Wisdom. Updated 9 November 2026. Page: https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/1979-rieger-scent-rubbing-carnivores/

## Citation and access

- **Authors:** Inga Rieger
- **Year published:** 1979
- **Journal or source:** Carnivore
- **Full citation:** Rieger, I. 1979. Scent rubbing in carnivores. Carnivore 2(1): 17–25.
- **Access status:** Publisher link only
- **Where to find it:** https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=Scent+Rubbing+in+Carnivores+Rieger

## Tags

- **Species:** Mammals > African civet; Mammals > African palm civet; Mammals > African wild dog; Mammals > Arctic fox; Mammals > Banded linsang; Mammals > Bat-eared fox; Mammals > Bobcat; Mammals > Brown bear; Mammals > Bush dog; Mammals > Cheetah; Mammals > Coati; Mammals > Common palm civet; Mammals > Coyote; Mammals > Domestic cat; Mammals > Domestic dog; Mammals > Dwarf mongoose; Mammals > Fennec fox; Mammals > Golden jackal; Mammals > Grey fox; Mammals > Grey wolf; Mammals > Kinkajou; Mammals > Large-spotted genet; Mammals > Leopard; Mammals > Lion; Mammals > Maned wolf; Mammals > Margay; Mammals > Marsh mongoose; Mammals > Masked palm civet; Mammals > Mountain lion; Mammals > Pine marten; Mammals > Raccoon dog; Mammals > Red fox; Mammals > Serval; Mammals > Small Indian civet; Mammals > Small-spotted genet; Mammals > Snow leopard; Mammals > Spotted hyena; Mammals > Striped hyena; Mammals > Sun bear; Mammals > Suricate; Mammals > Tayra; Mammals > Tiger; Mammals > Wolverine
- **Behaviour and ecology:** Behaviour; Communication; Feeding
- **Methods and technology:** Literature review
- **Data type:** Review
- **Observer qualification:** Not needed
- **Discipline:** Behaviour and ecology
- **Year published:** 1979

## Detailed keywords

- **Species:** Studied (from the literature, about 45 carnivore species in seven families, named in the paper mostly by scientific name; common names here are ours where the paper gives none): Canidae: wolf (Canis lupus), domestic dog (Canis familiaris), coyote (Canis latrans), golden jackal (Canis aureus), African wild dog (Lycaon pictus), Arctic fox (Alopex lagopus), red fox (Vulpes vulpes), fennec (Fennecus zerda), raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonides), maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus), bat-eared fox (Otocyon megalotis), grey fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), bush dog (Speothos venaticus). Ursidae: brown bear (Ursus arctos), sun bear (Helarctos malayanus). Procyonidae: coati (Nasua species), kinkajou (Potos flavus). Mustelidae: wolverine (Gulo gulo), tayra (Eira barbara), pine marten (Martes martes). Viverridae: African civet (Civettictis civetta), small Indian civet (Viverricula indica), common genet (Genetta genetta), large-spotted genet (Genetta tigrina), banded linsang (Prionodon linsang), African palm civet (Nandinia binotata), palm civet (Paradoxurus species), masked palm civet (Paguma larvata), marsh mongoose (Herpestes paludinosa), “mungo” (Mungo species), dwarf mongoose (Helogale undulata), meerkat or suricate (Suricata suricatta). Hyaenidae: striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena), spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta). Felidae: margay (Leopardus wiedii), domestic cat (Felis libyca dom.), serval (Leptailurus serval), bobcat (Lynx rufus), puma (Puma concolor), ounce or snow leopard (Uncia uncia), tiger (Panthera tigris), leopard (Panthera pardus), lion (Panthera leo), cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus). Never reported scent rubbing in the sources: olingo (Bassaricyon species), red panda (Ailurus fulgens), binturong (Arctictis binturong); unknown for aardwolf (Proteles cristatus). Plants as scent sources: cat mint (Nepeta cataria), valerian (Valeriana species), Lippia javanica (Verbenaceae).
- **Location and habitat:** No study area; a review of published and unpublished reports, many from zoo animals. The author worked at the Zurich Zoo (Zoologischer Garten Zürich), Switzerland, and adds her own unpublished observations of striped hyenas and ounces.
- **Topics:** scent rubbing (also called body rubbing, neck sliding, cheek rubbing, rolling; in German Einreiben, Sichreiben, Parfümieren, Imprägnieren); scent rubbed body areas (SRBA); scent sources (food, chemicals, cat mint, urine and faeces of other species, scent marks); rolling on carrion; scent marking; cheek rubbing in cats; skin glands; Flehmen; covering scents with urine, faeces or soil; agonistic behaviour; appeasement display; oestrus and sexual behaviour; social versus solitary canids; evolution and ritualisation of behaviour; odour camouflage; novelty reduction; social attractiveness; comfort behaviour. Inconsistencies and printing errors: the author’s name is printed “Reiger” on the first page and corrected to “Rieger” in the errata at the end; the errata also correct several species names and references. The text says the lion is the only cat for which several references to rubbing the back were found, but Table 2 also marks the back for the domestic cat, puma, ounce and leopard.
- **Statistics or models:** None
- **Data type:** Review of the literature (references from 1926 to 1978, plus personal communications and the author’s unpublished observations). No new data collection dates given.

## Synopsis

### 1. What they did

Dog owners know the scene: a dog sniffs a dead fish, then drops onto their back and rolls on it. Inga Rieger, working at the Zurich Zoo, gathered everything she could find in the literature on this “scent rubbing” across the carnivores, and added her own unpublished observations of striped hyenas and ounces (snow leopards).

She compiled the reports into four tables covering about 45 species in seven families, and used them to ask:

- Which body areas are rubbed? She called these the scent rubbed body areas (SRBA): lips, chin, throat, cheeks, neck, shoulders, back of the head, chest, flanks and back.

- Which scent sources set off scent rubbing?

- In what situations do carnivores scent rub?

She then proposed how the behaviour may have evolved and weighed six published ideas about what it is for. She stresses that the sources were collected in very different ways, from casual notes to years of study, so the review can only point to tendencies, and the list is not complete.

### 2. What they found

Body areas rubbed

- The back is the body area most often rubbed across the carnivores.

- Brown bears rub from the cheeks to the back. Viverrids rub between lips and shoulders plus flanks and back. Both hyena species rub neck, shoulders and back. Cats prefer the head, especially the cheeks.

- A coati was seen using their hands to carry scent onto their belly and tail.

- Scent rubbing is rare in mustelids, apart from the tayra and wolverine, and was seldom reported in procyonids.

Scent sources (five groups)

- Food: meat, fish, carrion, intestines, stomach contents, vomit, pellets, citrus fruits.

- Chemicals the animals would not normally meet, such as petrol (benzine), cheese, cigarettes, cod-liver oil, perfumes, menthol, insecticides, pine resin and turpentine. Thirteen species reacted to these.

- Cat mint (catnip) and valerian. Only the house cat, the ounce and the lion are known to rub on cat mint (the lion on Lippia javanica); coatis and small Indian civets react in a similar way.

- Urine and faeces of other species, such as ungulates and birds. Canids, viverrids and cats in particular reacted to the droppings and urine of prey animals.

- Scent marks of their own species, or their own. Hyenas and cats often rub on scent marks.

Some cases fit none of these: a young wolf rolling on a dead wolf, similar behaviour in an African wild dog, a male lion rolling on a lion cub, and a mongoose and a pine marten rolling in water. In a striped hyena, anal gland secretions were found in the neck fur, where they usually rub.

Situations

- Species of four families scent rubbed before, during and after feeding, and species of three families together with scent marking. Brown bears urinate standing up while rubbing their shoulders on a marking tree, then rub their shoulders in the fresh urine and rub the tree again.

- Fennecs and genets rubbed during aggression; ounces after agonistic encounters, as an appeasement display.

- Brown bears, cats and fennecs rub more during oestrus. Social canids roll on scents more, while more solitary canids tend to cover scents with urine or faeces.

Who scent rubs

- Only land-living carnivores; it was never reported from aquatic carnivores, and arboreal species rarely or never do it.

- It is linked to diet: plant eaters such as the red panda were never seen doing it.

- It was reported mainly from larger species.

### 3. What they concluded

- The oldest form of scent rubbing is likely rolling the back and neck on food. Over time new scents (prey droppings, other strong odours and the species’ own scent marks) and new body areas closer to the head (shoulders, neck, cheeks, chin, throat) were added, so animals could reach scent marks placed above the ground.

- In cats the behaviour has gone furthest: cheek rubbing has become part of scent marking and, in agonistic and sexual settings, a ritual visual display that no longer depends on scent.

- Cat cheek rubbing is not scent marking but scent rubbing: no scent glands were found in cat cheek skin, and scent rubbing moves scent from the environment onto the animal, not the other way round.

- She rejects the ideas that scent rubbing is a leftover of scent marking, a mark of ownership on food, or part of comfort behaviour.

- The rubbed areas are the parts of the body highest above the ground and hard for the animal to smell themselves, so the scent is probably meant for others: to draw other members of the species (to the animal or to a carcass they found), or to mask the animal’s own smell from prey. Rubbing near the head on their own species’ marks may also reassure the animal. Some reports support the ideas that rubbing reduces the novelty of a strange smell and makes an animal more interesting to others. Only experiments can show which is right.

### 6. Other technologies, skills or innovations

- A simple coding of body areas and scent sources across species, which lets the scattered literature be compared in tables.

## Cite this summary

Lawrence, K. 2026. Summary of: Scent Rubbing in Carnivores (Rieger, 1979). Original Wisdom, Tracking Literature. https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/1979-rieger-scent-rubbing-carnivores/