# Red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) use rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) scent marks as territorial marking sites

> Why would a fox leave its scat right on top of a rabbit’s latrine? In a forest near Madrid, researchers found that red foxes marked more where rabbits were plentiful, and placed their scats on rabbit latrines and pawscrapes far more often than chance would predict. The rabbits’ own scent marks seem to work as amplifiers for the fox’s territorial message.

Summary by Kersey Lawrence, Original Wisdom. Updated 9 November 2026. Page: https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/2009-monclus-arroyo-red-foxes-vulpes-vulpes/

## Citation and access

- **Authors:** Raquel Monclús, Marta Arroyo, Ana Valencia and Francisco Javier de Miguel
- **Year published:** 2009
- **Journal or source:** Journal of Ethology
- **Full citation:** Monclús, R., Arroyo, M., Valencia, A. and de Miguel, F. J. 2009. Red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) use rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) scent marks as territorial marking sites. Journal of Ethology 27(1): 153–156.
- **DOI:** 10.1007/s10164-008-0098-8
- **Access status:** Publisher link only
- **Where to find it:** https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-008-0098-8

## Tags

- **Species:** Mammals > European rabbit; Mammals > Red fox
- **Region:** Europe > Spain
- **Tracking:** Digs; Scat; Sign surveys; Tracking; Tracks and signs identification
- **Behaviour and ecology:** Behaviour; Communication
- **Methods and technology:** Mann–Whitney U test; Plot searches; Wilcoxon matched pairs test
- **Data type:** New field data
- **Observer qualification:** Not reported
- **Discipline:** Behaviour and ecology; Wildlife tracking
- **Year published:** 2009

## Detailed keywords

- **Species:** Studied: red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), the fox’s main prey in the study area. Other species discussed from earlier studies: wolf (Canis lupus) and Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus).
- **Location and habitat:** Suburban forest of about 300 ha near Madrid, central Spain, at about 700 m above sea level (UTM square 30TVK48). Mediterranean holm oak forest (Quercus ilex ssp. ballota) with patches of planted pine (Pinus pinea and Pinus pinaster); dense vegetation, with clearings and paths (called roads in the paper).
- **Topics:** scent marking; territorial marking with faeces; chemical and visual signals; detectability of marks; marking at clearings, crossroads and roads; rabbit latrines and pawscrapes as landmarks; predator–prey interactions; defending food resources; aggregational response of a predator to prey; rabbit density from pellet counts.
- **Statistics or models:** Non-parametric tests: Mann–Whitney U test (high versus low rabbit density plots), Wilcoxon matched pairs test (clearings versus roads, observed versus expected use of rabbit marks, latrines versus pawscrapes). Expected frequencies assumed fox faeces were spread evenly in each plot. Rabbit density index N = F / (t × D × A), with a defecation rate of 560 pellets per day and a correction for pellet decay. Plots split at the median density (21.56) into 12 high and 13 low density plots. Analyses in STATISTICA 6.0. One small oddity: for faeces in clearings, Z = -0.835 is reported with P = 0.437, slightly higher than this Z value would usually give (about 0.40); it does not change the conclusion.
- **Data type:** New field data, October 2005 to April 2006, from 25 fixed plots visited weekly.

## Synopsis

### 1. What they did

Many mammals mark their territories with scent, and faeces make especially good marks because they add something to see as well as smell. Red foxes and European rabbits both rely heavily on scent, and both leave their marks in clearings and at landmarks. Rabbits were the foxes’ main food in this area. The authors expected foxes to mark more, and to make their marks easier to find, where rabbits were more plentiful, as a way of defending their food.

From October 2005 to April 2006 they studied a suburban forest near Madrid, Spain:

- Plots. They chose 25 fixed plots of 50 × 50 m at random, spaced far enough apart that each held a separate rabbit population, and visited them every week.

- Rabbit density. In each plot they cleared all rabbit pellets from four 1 × 1 m squares and counted the new pellets a week later. A fifth square with a known number of fresh pellets let them correct for pellets lost to rain, sun and vegetation. They then split the plots into high density (12) and low density (13).

- Fox scats. For every new fox scat they recorded whether it lay on a road (any path, whatever its width) or in a clearing (including path intersections), and whether it lay directly on a rabbit latrine or pawscrape.

- What was available. They measured how much clearing and road each plot had, and in 16 plots the number and area of rabbit latrines and pawscrapes, so they could compare where foxes left scats with what they would expect by chance.

### 2. What they found

- They recorded 335 fox scats. Plots with more rabbits had significantly more fox scats.

- Foxes left more scats in clearings than on roads. This did not depend on rabbit density: scats in clearings, and scats on roads, were no more common in high density plots than in low density ones.

- Plots with more rabbits had more fox scats placed on rabbit latrines and pawscrapes.

- Foxes placed scats on rabbit marks far more often than expected by chance, for latrines and for pawscrapes alike.

- Foxes left more scats on pawscrapes than on latrines, but pawscrapes were also more common. Once availability was taken into account, foxes did not prefer one over the other.

- Within the 16 plots where rabbit marks were measured, how much foxes used latrines, or pawscrapes, did not depend on rabbit density.

### 3. What they concluded

- Foxes and rabbits were closely linked in space. More scats where rabbits were plentiful suggests foxes spent more time in these richer patches, adjusting their territories to their prey. They also marked these patches more, and not at random.

- Foxes chose clearings whatever the rabbit density. In this dense forest, clearings were almost the only breaks in the vegetation, and many small tracks lead into them, so a mark there is more likely to be found.

- Rabbit latrines and pawscrapes are already conspicuous signals that combine sight and smell. Adding a scat on top may make the fox’s mark even easier to detect. The authors suggest foxes use rabbit marks as “amplifiers” for their own, and that rabbit marks may also tell foxes where their prey is.

- They saw two patterns in fox marking: one shaped by the general layout of the habitat (clearings), and one shaped by how many rabbits there were. Overall, foxes appear to defend their food by marking more, and more visibly, where their prey is abundant.

### 4. How tracking was or was not used

The whole study rests on finding and identifying signs. Each week the team found and recorded new fox scats, and noted whether they lay on rabbit latrines or pawscrapes. Rabbit numbers were estimated from counts of rabbit pellets. No trailing was reported, and the paper does not say how fox scats were told apart from those of other animals.

### 5. Tracker or observer certification

Not reported. The paper does not say who searched the plots or identified the scats, latrines and pawscrapes, although every result depends on these identifications.

### 8. Implications for tracking (Original Wisdom's observations)

_These are Original Wisdom's observations, not the authors'._

- For trackers looking for red fox scats, this study points to clearings, path intersections and the tops of rabbit latrines and pawscrapes, especially where rabbits are plentiful.

- A fox scat on a rabbit latrine is not chance: it may be a deliberate territorial mark placed where it is most likely to be found.

## Cite this summary

Lawrence, K. 2026. Summary of: Red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) use rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) scent marks as territorial marking sites (Monclús and Arroyo et al., 2009). Original Wisdom, Tracking Literature. https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/2009-monclus-arroyo-red-foxes-vulpes-vulpes/