Cheetah communication at scent-marking sites can be inhibited or delayed by predators

Scent-marking is a way for individuals to indirectly communicate; however, the information is not exclusive to a single species and can be informative to a whole community. Prey or competitively inferior species can use scent-marks from predators/dominant species to avoid interactions. Cheetahs are a subordinate member of the large carnivore guild in Africa, yet olfactory communication in this guild has yet to be explored. We explore whether intraguild or intraspecific communication is occurring at cheetah scent-marking sites as well as whether dominant predator avoidance by cheetah occurs in response to predator presence or predator scent-marking. We recorded cheetah behaviour with video recording camera traps at cheetah scent-marking sites where a 'landscape of fear' was provided through natural predator presence or manipulated cues of predator presence. We found that cheetah took longer to return to scent-marking sites when a lion or a leopard was the previous species to visit the site. Moreover, cheetah increased the amount of time that they spent sniffing at scent-marking sites when another predator, as opposed to a cheetah, was the previous visitor. Finally, we noted that females never visited a scent-marking site after a predator was present nor when a predators' scent-mark was present. Our results demonstrate that cheetahs use scent-marking sites for intraspecific communication, but also obtain intraguild information at these sites. Dominant predators can inhibit or at least delay important intraspecific communication around estrous events that occurs between cheetah at scent-marking sites, a novel form of interference competition.