It turns out that lemurs may have a more refined sense of smell than we thought. Scientists have found that lemurs combine fragrances in order to create richer, longer-lasting scents.
Male ring-tailed lemurs produce their distinctive, musky odor with the help of a pair of glands on their wrists. These glands give off droplets of clear, fast-evaporating liquid. A second set of glands on their chests secrete a brown, foul-smelling paste.
These scents, however, are important for lemurs. They help males mark territories and also tell rivals to back off. Lemurs sometimes deposit wrist secretions alone by rubbing their wrists onto branches and samples. Other times, though, the lemurs mix their two scents; they press the insides of their wrists against their chest glands and then smear the mixture on their tails and wave them in the air.
Many animals combine odors from glands and urine. However, why they sometimes blend and layer these fragrances is poorly understood. That's why researchers decided to investigate a bit further to see why lemurs mix their scents.
In this latest study, the researchers presented pure and mixed scent secretions from unfamiliar males to 12 ring-tailed lemurs at the Duke Lemur Center. Then, the scientists collected secretions with cotton swabs and rubbed them on three wooden rods. One had wrist secretions, another had chest secretions, and a third had both.
So, what did they find? The researchers found that the lemurs showed a stronger preference for mixed secretions after the scents had aired out. They shifted from sniffing them when fresh to licking them intently when dried.
So, what does this mean? The findings suggest that mixing scents serves two purposes. The first is that blended secretions may increase the amount of information conveyed by a single dab of scent. In addition, mixing the scents boost their staying power. In fact, they may send a signal to males or other groups that wander by a marked tree days later.
The results reveal a bit more about why lemurs decide to mix scents. More specifically, they show the benefits of mingling scents and how it increases staying power.
The findings were published in the April 20 issue of the journal Royal Society Open Science.
