WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Why Do Dogs Love Rolling in Stinky Stuff?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.

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<v Speaker 1>Hey brain Stuff Lauren Vogel bomb here with a classic

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<v Speaker 1>episode from the vault. This fun delves into a curious

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<v Speaker 1>bit of animal behavior. Why dogs love rolling around in

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<v Speaker 1>seemingly anything that really reeks? Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel

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<v Speaker 1>bam here. If you've ever had a dog, or walked

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<v Speaker 1>a dog, or watched as many videos of dogs on

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<v Speaker 1>the internet as I have, you've probably witnessed one adorably

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<v Speaker 1>infuriating canine behavior. Their ability to find the spot with

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<v Speaker 1>the most decaying, stinky, vile, rotting awfulness and roll around

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<v Speaker 1>right in it, coating themselves in the muck. But why

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<v Speaker 1>spoiler alert? This is one of those questions that science

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<v Speaker 1>does not have a direct answer to, but the theories

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<v Speaker 1>are fascinating. Some researchers suspect it's a holdover from evolution.

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<v Speaker 1>Perhaps dogs are trying to mask their own scent to

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<v Speaker 1>hide from potential predators, even though they're generally unlikely to

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<v Speaker 1>encounter any in our human environments. Another theory suggests that dogs,

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<v Speaker 1>like wolves, roll because they smell something that to them

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<v Speaker 1>is sweet. Wolves exhibit this behavior so that everyone else

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<v Speaker 1>in the pack knows what it just found. A wolf

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<v Speaker 1>will PLoP down in a decaying carcass, get all good

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<v Speaker 1>and mucked up, and return as if to say, come on, guys,

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<v Speaker 1>you're not going to believe what I found. Interestingly, Canadian

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<v Speaker 1>researchers in six study descent rubbing into groups of captive wolves.

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<v Speaker 1>The researchers cooked up a range of different smells, somewhere

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<v Speaker 1>from herbivores others from carnivores. The dogs could also smell

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<v Speaker 1>food and some manufactured aromas, including perfume and motor oil.

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<v Speaker 1>The researchers observed that the wolves liked the manufactured sense

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<v Speaker 1>better than any of the others. A few liked the

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<v Speaker 1>scent of cougar and bear feces, while only one wolf

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<v Speaker 1>picked the salted pork. None liked the tuna oil. Other

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<v Speaker 1>scientists suggest that center rolling and yes that is the

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<v Speaker 1>scientific term, is a defensive trait. The January seventeen issue

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<v Speaker 1>of the Journal of Ethology, researchers at the University of

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<v Speaker 1>Wisconsin at Madison wrote about how they observed some gray

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<v Speaker 1>foxes with remote cameras in Santa Cruz, California for four years.

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<v Speaker 1>The cameras clicked on and off. They found that gray

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<v Speaker 1>foxes rubbed their jowls on puma scrapes, a form of

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<v Speaker 1>scent marking that the big cats used to communicate with

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<v Speaker 1>other pumas. The upshot was that the foxes were perhaps

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<v Speaker 1>covering themselves in puma scent in order to keep predators away.

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<v Speaker 1>We spoke by email with Simon Gadbois, an expert in

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<v Speaker 1>canaid behavior and scent processing at Dalhousie University in Halifax,

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<v Speaker 1>Nova Scotia. He said, there are many hypotheses out there,

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<v Speaker 1>from environmental camouflage to seeking a group odor. Often all

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<v Speaker 1>members of the family unit will roll in the scent

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<v Speaker 1>to exploratory behavior. Yet at the end of the day,

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<v Speaker 1>he added, no one really knows it could be and

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<v Speaker 1>this is my pet theory. Pun retroactively intended that they're

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<v Speaker 1>just having fun with a new and exciting scent experience

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<v Speaker 1>like terrible perfume, which is a possibility. Ged was said.

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<v Speaker 1>If you watch wolves, coyotes or dogs doing it, it

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<v Speaker 1>seems pretty obvious to me that they love it. Try

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<v Speaker 1>to stop them. Sometimes animals do things for no other

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<v Speaker 1>reasons than it's fun. We just have to be open

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<v Speaker 1>to that idea. Today's episode is based on the article

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<v Speaker 1>dogs Love rolling in Stinky Stuff on how stuff works

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<v Speaker 1>dot Com, written by John Paritano. Brain Stuff is production

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<v Speaker 1>of by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works

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