Is It Possible To Smell Weakness?
It is said that some animals can smell people’s weakness or fear.
While this isn’t scientifically proven, there appears to be one animal that can smell fear: the ring-tailed lemur.
In this article, we will try to find out if it is possible to smell weakness.
Let’s get to know lemurs together
Lemurs are a group of primates found only in Madagascar and comprising more than 100 species. They make up one fifth of the group of animals in which the human species is classified.
Lemurs are an extremely varied species: there are lemurs that exceed 200 kilograms and others that weigh around 30 grams.
In this tremendous variety, there are some characteristics that are quite common: lemurs are animals with a highly developed sense of smell.
Some species, such as the ring-tailed lemur, produce secretions containing between 200 and 300 chemicals.
Lemurs can smell weakness
However, it was by no means known that lemurs can smell weakness through these secretions, or that injured or diseased lemurs leave a trace in these particular secretions.
The discovery was made by scientists from Duke University, a leading institution in the research of these primates.
The group studied was one of ring-tailed lemurs, or ring-tailed lemur, an endangered species.
Specifically, what these researchers found is that injured lemurs lose 10% of their odor diversity, something the rest of the group did not lose.
Which is why you can literally smell the sick lemur’s weakness.
This makes them more vulnerable to aggression from other group members to try to outdo them in the hierarchy.
In the case of the ring-tailed lemurs, we are talking about one of the species in which the females rule, as in many other species of lemurs.
This loss of diversity in the smells of one injured lemur causes other lemurs to smell the wounded animal’s weakness.
And this could affect their ability to communicate as well, as lemurs use both their sense of smell and their various cries and barks to convey information to each other.
The threats of the ring-tailed lemur
Most of the world’s primates are at greater or lesser degree of extinction or their populations are in decline.
In the case of the ring-tailed lemur, the reason is the destruction of its habitat, mainly the tropical forests of Madagascar.
Indeed, in this country and on this huge African island, political instability and rising poverty levels affect the natural habitat of lemurs, causing, for example, illegal logging.
It appears that although lemurs may smell the weakness of other members of their species, they still do not smell the human threat surrounding them.
