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According to the study, dogs exposed to lavender and chamomile spent more time resting and less time moving than with other olfactory stimuli used in the experiment. These odorants also were found to reduce barking and vocalization in caged animals. On the other hand, fragrances such as rosemary and peppermint were found to encourage significantly more standing, moving and vocalizing.
— Read more at The Way To Dogs’ Brain Is Through Their Noses at The Bark.
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A new study shows that as air pollution increases, the ability of bees to find food diminishes. The particles interfere with the apian olfactory system, say scientists at Penn State.
Airborne contaminants confuse bees and react with the fragrance molecules put out by flowers, affecting the lifespans of these vital volatile compounds as well as their ability to travel.
— Read more at Air pollution impedes bees' ability to find food at UPI, or see Bees' ability to forage decreases as air pollution increases at Penn State.
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The bees from the genus Euglossa formulate their unique perfumes for reasons similar to ours: to attract mates, establish a signature identity, and smell good in a crowd. They do this by gathering a variety of carefully selected scents from their environment, and then douse their bodies with the perfume.
“The males expose them at the places where mating occurs,” said co-author Thomas Eltz of Ruhr-University Bochum, “so the perfumes may be chemical signals to females.”
— Read more at Orchid Bees Blend Their Own Perfume at Discovery.
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Compared with 13 other mammal species studied, African elephants have the most genes related to smell: 2,000. That’s the most ever discovered in an animal—more than twice the number of olfactory genes in domestic dogs and five times more than in humans, who have about 400, according to research published July 22 in the journal Genome Research. The previous record-holder was rats, which have about 1,200 genes dedicated to smell.
— Read more at Elephants Have 2,000 Genes for Smell—Most Ever Found at National Geographic.
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One of the odder things about perfumes is how much they have depended over the centuries on the scent of other animals — for instance, ambergris, a fatty excretion of the sperm whale, or the musk from the anal sacs of a civet. In concentration, some of these scents are unpleasant, even noxious.
— From Fine Perfumes of the Animal World at the New York Times Opinionator blog. Hat tip to Oakland Fresca!