Olfactory Communication in a Fission-Fusion Society: The Function of Scent Marking in Spotted Hyenas, Crocuta Crocuta

By gazing at a person’s face, humans accurately distinguish characteristics such as gender, age, individual identity but also mood and even health status. For many animals, vision is less important than olfaction in making these discriminations; indeed, the precision by which animals can identify characteristics of each other by scent is almost beyond understanding. This study suggests that the amount of information animals gather from olfactory signals is as powerful as the information humans obtain from visual signals.