Why do dogs like to roll in other animals’ poop?

THE dogs They are characterized by being affectionate, but also by being very mean. It is likely that you have seen on several occasions that, as soon as they see a place full of mud, excrement and other substances that smell bad, they quickly roll away as if there was not something more fun to do. After this action, they have one left smell It doesn’t scare anyone.

But what exactly is causing this behavior?

Simon Gadbois, a researcher specializing in the animal behavior of wild wolves, foxes and coyotes in Canada, asked himself this question after observing that his border collie Zyla was also showing a sudden enthusiasm for rolling in trash. animals .

The scene happened in Nova Scotia, Canada, where the researcher was studying wild animals. Although the dog was trained to help him find specimens, she showed a weakness for rubbing herself against beaver droppings.

“You might think that this habit would interfere with their ability to smell and track other animals, but it actually didn’t affect their performance at all.” Gadbois commented on BBC World .

There are a wide variety of theories that attempt to explain why dogs enjoy being around foul-smelling substances.

One of the most accepted hypotheses suggests that This is a behavior inherited from the time when dogs were wild predators. like wolves. It should be remembered that more than 20,000 years ago, humans managed to domesticate dogs thanks to wolves, according to the BBC.

From Gadbois’ perspective, it is likely that in the past this behavior served “a very important function” for dogs, he told the aforementioned media outlet. However, over time, this function has disappeared and the behavior still persists today.

Along the same lines, it has also been suggested that it could have been a form of “olfactory camouflage” for predators searching for prey, although research in the 1980s called this theory into question.

After exposing a group of wolves to a wide variety of odors, researchers found that they didn’t show as much interest in the droppings of other animals, including sheep and horses. In fact, the preferred aromas were artificial ones, such as perfume or motor oil.

Some believe that “olfactory camouflage” has another purpose: instead of helping canines search for prey, This could be a behavior aimed at hiding from larger predators.

This idea was supported by a study by ecologist Max Allen, carried out in 2016. Using remote-controlled cameras, the researcher managed to capture the behavior of gray foxes in a region of California.

According to their findings, the animals visited specific areas where male pumas were urine-marked and then rubbed their snouts on the ground.

From the ethologist’s point of view, the foxes tried to absorb the scent of the pumas in order to get protection against other larger predators, particularly coyotes. “By smelling the puma, they could buy time to escape,” Allen told British media.

Wallowing in foul-smelling substances may also be linked to a social goal, such as sharing interesting information with the environment. According to research on captive hyenas, animals that had the scent of carrion on their fur were more likely to receive attention from other members of their group.

For Gadbois, who has spent years analyzing animal behavior, The explanation would also be linked to the “establishment of a group odor.” which strengthens the union between all members of the pack.

According to his observations of wolf packs in Canada, the tendency was for the pack leader to be the first to wallow in strong odors, and then the other members would repeat the same behavior.

“In the wolves I’ve studied, if one wolf starts rubbing something like a deer carcass, the whole pack will follow and rub it. I’ve seen this in coyotes and foxes in the wild as well. It seems to become the scent that you share with everyone else in the pack,” the researcher explained.

Roberto Cazzolla Gatti, a biologist at the University of Bologna (Italy), has published research that highlights other, more complicated reasons than those mentioned above: It is an “olfactory mirror” .

Along with his fellow researchers, Cazzolla discovered that wolves could recognize each other by the scents they left in their wake. The specimens analyzed did not rub against their scent in any way, but when it came to the scent of members of their own group, other wolves outside their pack and even dogs, they wallowed.

According to the biologist, these results allow us to understand that animals are “aware of the odors of others that they wish to capture in their environment” and that olfactory behavior also fulfills a series of transcendental functions, including “identity” and “sociability.”

And could it be that this behavior is just for fun?

Animal behavior expert Michael Fox put forward this hypothesis in his book Dog Body, Dog Mind: Exploring Canine Consciousness And Total Well-Being. According to their analysis, dogs wallow in other scents for their own pleasure because they can benefit from the stimulation of scents that are off-putting to the human sense of smell.