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Hyena Identity Linked to Odor MoleculesMade by BacteriaNov. 12, 2013
By JON M. CHANG via WORLD NEWS
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Bacteria in the human gut may help fight off disease, but the bacteria living in hyenas may serve adifferent purpose entirely.
Microbes living in a hyena's scent pouch may actually be responsible for how it smells, as well assignaling its identity to other animals, according to microbiologists at Michigan State University. Theresearch was published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Kevin Theis, lead author of the research paper, said that hyenas use smell to communicate withone another through an action known as pasting. "Their scent pouch is between their butt and theirtail," he told ABC News. A pasting hyena extrudes its scent pouch outwards and drags it across astalk of grass, leaving behind a thin layer of secretion in its wake. "Some people say it smells likecheap soap, but it smells more like mulch to me."
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The distinct odor of hyena paste (Theis and his colleagues say they can detect it in the air andfollow their noses to find where it's coming from) is likely a collaborative effort between the hyena'sbodily chemistry and the bacteria living within its scent pouch. To support this theory, Theiscollected 40 different samples of hyena paste in the Kenyan wilderness and sent it back toMichigan State University for further analysis.
Though there was a significant difference between the pastes of spotted and striped hyenas, Theisobserved that there was more information hidden both in the bacterial and chemical makeup ofthose pastes. For example, hexanoic acid and a strain of bacteria known as OTU-1 are found indifferent concentrations between males, lactating females and pregnant females. In a similar vein, iftwo paste samples had the same bacterial profile, they would also have the same odor profile.
"Some people say it smells like cheap soap,but it smells more like mulch to me."
But is it the bacteria that causes the odor, or do specific odors naturally attract specific types ofbacteria? Theis believes that the former is more likely. "The types of chemicals that we studied areknown to be results of bacterial fermentation," he said. However, he added that he still plans toverify this hypothesis by manipulating bacteria in a lab setting.
Bacteria located in a hyena's scent pouch may be responsible for their odor.
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These types of elaborate scent profiles may offer an explanation as to how hyenas reinforce theirelaborate and somewhat unusual social structure.
"All adult female hyenas as well as their kids are dominant to all of the adult males," said Theis."They exhibit low rates of aggression among themselves, so it's interesting to see if scent mediatesthis relationship."
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