Let’s talk Stinky

Today we are talking stinky. Yes, stinky!!!

Because if you are anything like me, you lovvvve rolling in smelly stuff and you might even love munching it, just as I do. And yes, it often gets me in trouble, like the time I savaged some rotting fish on the beach and swallowed the hook, I mean, who in their right mind would leave a hook attached to such yummies?

Sadly mommy and daddy never seem to understand the beauty of doggy pawfumes, they are just so unlike the wired scents my pawrents find alluring. (I mean mommy likes to smell like a flower, really? I love her hooman smell and then she comes out smelling like a bush, but what do I know…)

So this weekend I did some research and this is what I found out. Everything seems a bit vague, as even those really smart hoomans don’t seem to be sure.

 

 

Dogs and wolves

First of all we need to tell our hoomans, that our doggie sense of smell is at least a thousand times more sensitive than theirs. Which makes it even harder for them to understand why we like rolling in stink, even in poop from other fur-kids.

Doggies have started befriending hoomans around 15,000 years ago and we have lived side-by-side them ever since. But before that we were living in the wild, just on our own, and it is a dangerous place out there.

Just like our siblings, the wolves, who roll in poo to hide their scent from prey as they close in for the kill, so probably did we.

The majestic wolves will roll in the faeces of other species, and even in the carcasses of dead animals!

Yet, biologists who studied ‘scent-rubbing’ in two groups of captive wolves in Canada by providing them with a range of different odours were surprised. When given the choice the wolves were least interested in rubbing themselves in the faeces of dead herbivores, instead, they favoured artificial scents like mommy’s perfume or motor oil.

(I wonder if the wolves just did it to outsmart those hoomans?)

However, the researchers also found that the wolves’ second favourite scent was the poop of other carnivores like cougars and black bears.

Which raises the strong possibility that wolves like to roll in their predators scent.

 

Foxes too

A research published in 2016 by ecologist Max Allen followed the behaviour of the reclusive grey foxes which were regularly visiting sites that male mountain lions used for scent-marking. The footage showed the foxes rubbing their cheeks on the ground that had been freshly marked with the smelly urine from those mountain lions.

Allen believes the foxes are using the odour from these large feline predators as a form of ‘odour camouflage’, to hide them from other predators, like coyotes.

Coyotes are much bigger than foxes, who seem to want to eliminate them as their competition for resources.The foxes cannot really fight back, so they are using the puma scent to get some form of protection. Smelling like a puma might give them some time to escape…

However, it still does not explain why larger canids, like wolves, also rub themselves in the scent left by other predators.

Let’s be honest, us doggies we don’t just dip our cheeks in stink, we want to rub it in – all over. Right?

 

 

Social media of the animal world?

Could it be some sort of communication with the pack? Like those Instagrams and Facebooks my parents are so addicted too. (sadly they have zero smell)

Wolf Park founder Erich Klinghammer, proposed that scent-rolling may be a way to tell other wolves about tasty treats they found while they were off on their own.

As his team found out, wolves don’t just eat if they find some yummies, like a dead elk. They will roll in it and then much it. So maybe that food scent on the wolf’s breath and fur indicates that there are more leftovers to scavenge, for the wolf pack to get there later? 

This idea was also suggested by Tine Howe on Facebook, who believes that dogs roll in poo to carry the scent of prey animals home to the rest of the pack.

Hyenas (oh, I don’t like those very much) have also been observed rolling in carrion, and receive more attention from other members of their pack afterwards. Similarly, a study of Ethiopian wolves showed that they tended to roll on the ground following a good meal, although they were also seen rolling in hooman poop.

This seems to point to a social function for the scent-rolling.

Or is it something much simpler?

In another wolf pack study it was observed that the alpha leader is always the first to roll in a strong stink and only then the others followed.

So could it be, that scent-sharing is about establishing a group odour?

This idea of sharing an odour to increase the sense of “togetherness” or of becoming ONE PACK has also been seen in African wild dogs, where females will roll in the urine of males from a group they are looking to join. 

Similarly, us dogs in a pack will regularly rub against each other’s scent glands to pick up each other’s smellies. (I love rubbing Sherlock, but most all mommy, unless she smells like a bush – but then I try to lick her clean)

 

 

And here are some more strange hooman thoughts on the smelly matter

For instance, it has been suggested that we use strong smells as a sort of insect repellent, although using poop as the scent of choice seems rather unsuited to this purpose. (yeaph, and it does not work. If at all it attracts more bugs!)

Others have suggested oils in the poop might help waterproof our coats. Really?

And some others suggest that we may be using the pungent odours in much the same way as hoomans use perfume. (Yes, I can agree on that)

And others think we simply get a kick out of rolling in poo.

Anyone who has watched our gleeful reaction after rubbing in something disgusting will understand.

So yes, maybe we do get a great big rush of dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in reward and pleasure. Kind of like a cookie. 

I think I like the answer on why we roll in poo from this lady named Kate Dumont the best. She has a simple explanation: “Because we are the poo-ches.”

Now that really made me laugh.

 

 

Stinky licks,

Your Cooka

PS: 

Please tell your pawrents. If they offer plenty of cookies that dopamine is always in full action and then we don’t need to go looking for other ways to pleasure up our neurotransmitters.

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