|
To tell a hyena it stank would not be an insult. It has been known for decades that these animals communicate using a pungent material called hyena butter. This forms in pouches next to their anuses and they smear it onto plants for other hyenas to sniff and draw conclusions about the depositor. It has also been long suspected that the smell—mainly the result of small fatty-acid, ester and alcohol molecules—is generated not directly by hyenas themselves, but rather by bacteria that live in the pouches. The details, however, are obscure. They are less obscure now, though, thanks to the work of Kevin Theis of Michigan State University, who has spent much of his career analysing the contents of hyena pouches. And, at a session at this year’s meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he shared his conclusions with an eager audience. There are four species of hyena, three of which are solitary and one gregarious. Dr Theis compared one of the solitary species, the striped hyena, with the gregarious one, the spotted hyena, which lives in clans that have as many as 90 animals in them. Spotted-hyena society is a dominatrix’s dream: the girls are very much in charge, and even have pseudopenises which they show off to cow the males. One of the things Dr Theis was looking for was systematic differences in the butter of the two sexes, and of female butter in various phases of their reproductive cycle. He also compared the social species with the solitary one. Striped-hyena butter was chemically simpler than spotted-hyena butter. Dr Theis looked at nine fatty acids. The butter of striped hyenas was dominated by one, iso-pentanoic acid (the source of the odour of human feet). Butter from spotted hyenas, by contrast, generally had all nine, in varying proportions. That makes sense if, as seems plausible, a social animal needs to convey more complex and nuanced information than does a solitary one. This chemical complexity was matched by the intricacy of the bacterial ecosystems believed to be generating it. Modern genetic techniques allow these to be sampled far more effectively than by the old approach of culturing on agar plates. Spotted pouches turned out to contain more species than striped ones did, and Dr Theis was able, in some cases, to work out which bacteria were responsible for generating which fatty acid. Spotted hyenas did indeed seem to use the extra complexity of their scent for signalling. First, each clan had a perceptible collective odour (or, at least, a recognisable and consistent underlying pattern of fatty acids which was different from that of other clans). Second, superimposed on this basic signal each animal had its own recognisable scent. Third, female and male scents did differ, and the scents of females also varied according to whether they were lactating or pregnant. Exactly what the animals are saying to each other, Dr Theis has yet to determine. The clan-identity scent is probably a keep-out sign marking the clan’s collective property. Female scents might act as come-hither or stay-away signals, depending on an animal’s reproductive status. But there are probably a lot of more subtle messages—about an individual’s state of health, perhaps, or its position, particularly if female, in the hierarchy. There is also the question of how a hyena tells its bacteria what to do—and, indeed, how the whole bizarre system evolved in the first place. Outsourcing your conversation with your friends, mates and rivals to several dozen other species of organism, each with its own agenda for survival and reproduction, is a strange way of doing business.
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 16:43
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 23, 2024 15:53 |
|
|
foot smelling butt butter?
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 16:49
|
|
|
So what's your excuse for your stank op?
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 16:51
|
|
|
Feedback Agency posted:Kevin Theis of Michigan State University, who has spent much of his career analysing the contents of hyena pouches my kinda guy
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 16:52
|
|
|
A Wizard of Goatse posted:my kinda guy he shared his conclusions with an eager audience
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 16:54
|
|
|
I'm the eager audience.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 17:27
|
|
|
You left out the fact that female hyenas all have fake schlongs they use to peg the males in the rear end with.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 17:32
|
|
|
'Lying in bed on a summer morning, with the window open, listening to the church bells, eating buttered toast with cunty fingers.'
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 17:34
|
|
|
Mods please change my name to Hyena Butter tia
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 17:39
|
|
|
lol nobody wants to talk to this dude at conferences bc he loving stinks lololol
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 18:42
|
|
|
Fairly certain they give birth through their giant elastic clits too an all around weird animal to be sure
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 18:44
|
|
|
, or, how to make yourself a pariah of the world's nerdiest fraternity
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 18:46
|
|
|
Wonder how you get into the stink rear end crud field. Do you think this guy looks back on hundreds of thousands of dollars in educational expenses and nods to himself silently satisfied believing he is blazing trails in the rear end goop mystery
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 18:49
|
|
|
Bloodfart McCoy posted:You left out the fact that female hyenas all have fake schlongs they use to peg the males in the rear end with. Feedback Agency posted:
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 19:10
|
|
|
Why is everyone suddenly talking about this? By everyone I mean I read it one other place online a couple of days ago after going my entire life never hearing about such a thing. Is it in a recent movie or mentioned in a Tweet? I am out of touch with reality.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 19:10
|
|
|
hyena girls have dicks
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 19:50
|
|
|
Feedback Agency posted:To tell a hyena it stank would not be an insult. It has been known for decades that these animals communicate using a pungent material called hyena butter. This forms in pouches next to their anuses and they smear it onto plants for other hyenas to sniff and draw conclusions about the depositor. *tents fingers, shushes audience cougher*
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 19:56
|
|
|
FWIW, I have always heard this material referred to as "anal paste". Perhaps they are re-branding...
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 20:02
|
|
|
winnydpu posted:FWIW, I have always heard this material referred to as "anal paste". Perhaps they are re-branding... What is your life like where you hear this regularly? Is the entire world familiar with this stuff? I missed the Hyena Butter memo!
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 20:19
|
|
|
Who's laughing now?
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 20:19
|
|
|
"The Entire World's Butt is Gaslit by Hyena Butt Butter Chatter" By Chuck Tingle
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 20:27
|
|
|
maybe they should coat their anal pouches with deodorant
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 21:35
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 23, 2024 15:53 |
|
|
Is there a hyena butter diet craze yet
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 21:40
|
|
