2024-05-11 06:37:36
So why do dogs sniff each other’s toes? It turns out that this “obsession” has a serious reason.
“Dogs can determine the health and reproductive status of another dog by sniffing each other’s tails, what they’ve eaten, and general news,” says Ellen Furlong, an associate professor of psychology who specializes in animal cognition at Transylvania University in Lexington, US.
The mating factor is also important. “Males (especially unneutered) may also spend more time sniffing females to learn about their reproductive status,” says Furlong.
But how can dogs gather all this information from a simple sniff? One of the first clues to solve this riddle appeared in 1976, when a study on dogs and coyotes was published. The study found that two small glands, one on each side of a dog’s anus, known as the anal glands, secrete a cocktail of odor-producing chemicals, including fishy-smelling trimethylamine and pungent-smelling propionic acid and butyric acid. Based on in 2021 published researchthese anal gland secretions probably serve as chemical signals for communication between dogs.
It’s likely that each chemical emitted by a dog communicates specific information to another dog – but scientists have yet to crack the code for this smell. in 2023 in a published study, comparing the anal gland secretions of male and female dogs, made some progress in deciphering this chemical language. Certain chemicals have been found to be secreted only by females and others only by males.
The researchers also noted that the chemicals secreted by individuals of the same sex and their concentrations vary greatly. This shows that a dog’s odor profile is determined not only by gender, but also by other parameters.
So, a dog smells another dog a mixture of chemicals. Thanks to their much better noses, dogs can identify individual odors in a mixture and detect them at much lower concentrations than humans. “A dog’s sense of smell is 10,000 to 100,000 times better than ours,” says Furlong.
Cats do it too
A cat’s sense of smell is also far superior to a human’s sense of smell. Research showsthat sniffing is very important to cat behavior and overall well-being, says Kristyn Vitale, associate professor of animal health and behavior at Unity Environmental University (USA).
Like dogs, cats have small glands that produce chemicals with different smells. “By smelling another cat’s tail, a cat can determine whether it is familiar or unfamiliar, as well as its sex and possibly even its reproductive status,” says Vitale. “Both males and females use scent to identify and communicate with social partners.”
in 2023 Researchers at the University of California, Davis, who performed A study of 23 domestic cats, revealed another piece of the puzzle. They found that the cat’s anal glands are home to a rich community of bacteria that are likely involved in the production of odor-producing anal gland secretions. Different cats had different bacteria in their anal glands, and the types of bacteria varied depending on the age and weight of the cat.
More research is needed, but the study authors believe that these bacteria help cats communicate. It is believed that other carnivores, including dogs, also communicate through the secretions of bacteria living in the glands. Confirming this hypothesis a study of hyenas showedthat bacteria living in their scent glands produce components of the chemical signals that hyenas use to communicate, Live Science writes.
2024-05-11 06:37:36