Wolves live in large packs to protect one another, hunt, and raise pups. One of the benefits of living in a large group is that you can collectively gather a lot of food. However, storing this food, referred to as a “cache,” can be difficult if other animals live in your territory. Thus, wolves use urine marking as a behavior to deter animals from stealing food from their cache.

Art by @thandaart on Instagram

[Edited by Isabelle McDonald]

Reference:

Harrington, F. H. (1981). Urine-Marking and Caching Behavior in the Wolf. Behaviour, 76(3–4), 280–288. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853981×00112