Mammals territorial marking

Unlike most terrestrial mammals, beavers maintain territories along a line following watercourses. Both species, the Eurasian beaver, C. fiber, and the North American beaver, C. canadensis, dredge up mud from the bottom of their home pond, carry it on land, deposit it, and apply a scent mark on top of this mud... 

Many other skin glands of mammals also produce odourous secretions to which behavioural functions are attributed marking of territories, recognition of species, of sex or individuals, etc.. They may also serve in familiarization with strange surroundings e.g. "gaining confidence" as exemplified by the behavior of rabbits (J ) A recent review on this subject is given by Muller-Schwarze (18). 

Pheromones are important for higher level animals, as well. Dogs, cats, foxes, and other territorial mammals (Peters and Mech, 1975) use urine to mark the boundaries of their territories. Females use urine to attract males when they are in estrus (see Section 6.18). Whether pheromones play an aphrodisiac role for humans is still an open question. Human male sweat and other body odors are apparently attractive to the opposite sex, especially at certain times during the menstrual cycle. 

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