It would be helpful if you could elaborate on what you mean by "intraspecific purpose."
I think I meant to say inner-specific? (always get those mixed up)
Anyway, what I mean is all signs point to "rolling on stinks" being for members of one's own species to notice.
And be intimidated, impressed/aroused whatever.
The animals doing it have sophisticated senses of smell, that's what they have in common, not a particularly significant need to go unnoticed by prey animals.
The animals which do have a particularly significant need to go unnoticed by prey animals (felines) are unusually finnicky about keeping clean.
This says alot.
Actually bears are predators at the top of the food chain, without any other predator, but they are also omnivores.
Stop saying "actually" before your unnecessary grade school clarifications, I suspect you will never "teach" me anything about animals. Stop trying, it's insulting.
Bears aren't animals preoccupied with optimising their hunting performance.
Knowing bears is knowing stealth isn't particularly high on their priorities.
This isn't to say it's never employed, but they aren't governed by a need to be stealthy like cats are.
Even though they aren't pack animals, they do interact with members of their own species alot and it's important for them to be able to intimidate rivals.
Since the sense of smell is so primary for them, it makes sense that they "g" themselves up with stinks. Like humans try to get muscles and tattoos to intimidate rivals, because sight is our primary sense.
This would imply that hunting in stealth is a learned behavior and not instinctive.
For dogs yes. It comes naturally to cats, but isn't an important evolutionary demand on canines, so it isn't in their instincts.
However, excessive trial and error can lead to them learning to use stealth to their advantage if traditional canine tactics aren't proving productive.
I'm not saying dogs are completely oblivious to the benefits of stealth, but they hold many things in a higher regard, some of which are at odds with optimal stealth.
Why do you think that mastiffs are different? I have no experience with mastiffs but have never heard anything about them being at odds with this behavior. In many ways, as in?
You wouldn't have heard about it, we're at the very complicated end of understanding the subtle differences between canid types here.
Doggiesfordummies.org probably doesn't touch on this no...
Mastiffs are, relative to the traditional canine blue print, lacking in endurance but superior in explosive power.
They have soft cushioned feet for grip in close-quarter interactions(like fighting) at the expense of durability over long distances on rugged terrain.
They are flexable like cats, with loose joints that allow their limbs to rotate to greater degrees than traditional canines.
Again, all for close-quarter combative situations.
They're ultimately not as well suited to the stereotypical canine hunt as the classic dog, they've deviated in a somewhat cat-like direction, so utilising stealth in hunting to a more pronounced degree than other dogs(still far less pronounced than cats) is a natural compensation they could be expected to make.
And my observations would align with this.
I also have experience with more classic types of dog, dogs with unfailing endurance and hard feet (longdogs and scenthounds), built for archetypal canine hunting tactics, and I know that stealth is much less likely to enter the realms of their consideration in a predation situation.
Even with my dog (and with similar behaviours I have observed in wolves hnting particularly swift small game animals) getting downwind is a minor last minute thing after spotting oblivious quarry.
Stealth isn't such a significant consideration so as to make dogs plan ahead and mask their odour, their odour is already much too important to them in everyday social interactions to even entertain that notion for a second.
