Territoriality beaver scent mounds

Beavers live in family units that are usually composed of a mated pair, yearlings, and kits. They occupy and defend territories (Schulte, 1993). Beavers rely heavily on chemical signals for social interaction and recognition. They use anal gland secretion (AGS) and castoreum to communicate many types of information, including family membership, kinship, sex, individuality, and territoriality (Svendsen, 1980 Sun and Miiller-Schwarze, 1997 Schulte, 1998). To do these, they build scent mounds on the bank, within 2 meters from the water, in areas of high activity around their territory, and then apply castoreum and/or AGS to the top (Svendsen, 1978, 1980 Rosell and Nolet, 1997 Rosell and Sundsdal, 2001). 

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