When not chasing down a story from our nation's capital, she takes in the food, music and culture of southwest Louisiana from the peaceful perch of her part-time New Orleans home. The scent of a skunk is legendary and lingering, but not in a good way. Post a Comment. Yet there is compelling cross-cultural evidence for this notion. Recently the U. There is one possible exception. Odors with strong trigeminal stimulation for example, ammonia are often immediately repelling.
The irritation caused by trigeminal nerve activity when we are exposed to the odor produces an avoidance response.
So it may well be that when an odor is automatically repelling, with no prior exposure to it, we are avoiding the unpleasant trigeminal aspect, not the olfactory aspect per se. One avenue of future research in the psychology of odor perception might be to develop a test to separate the trigeminal from the pure olfactory aspects of various noxious odors and to examine how responses to the olfactory aspect change when it is evaluated in isolation.
In this way of thinking, we could speculate that I like skunk because I cannot detect some of the more pungent volatiles in the skunk bouquet the way someone who is truly repelled by the odor can.
There may be similar genetic differences among various ethnic groups as well, which would explain why a universally effective stink bomb has not been found. There is also an evolutionary argument for why we are not hardwired to like or dislike any odors. This approach or avoidance response is called chemotaxis. As organisms evolved to be multicellular, they needed a way to detect on their outside what was good or bad for example, food or nonfood , and to communicate that information to the rest of the cells of the body.
This is how the chemical senses olfaction and taste are thought to have evolved. From an evolutionary perspective, the function of odors is to impart information about what to approach and what to avoid—for example, prey and predator.
These organisms are specialists. If, however, the organism could live in any ecological habitat and accept a wide variety of sources as food, it would not make evolutionary sense to have responses to acceptable versus nonacceptable smells wired in.
These organisms are generalists. We can live in any ecological habitat on the planet and survive by eating the available foods. For generalists, the function of olfaction is to learn how to respond appropriately to a particular smell source when it is encountered, and not to hold a predetermined set of responses to particular odors.
Thus animals that are specialists should have innate olfactory responses to prey and predators, whereas animals that are generalists should not.
They should be prepared to learn from experience what is good and what is bad. Evidence for this can be found in a number of studies of animal behavior. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that the cue by which these predators are detected is most often olfaction. For example, both lab-born and wild-reared ground squirrels show a discriminative defensive response to their natural predators, rattlesnakes, as compared to gopher snakes.
This discrimination is made on the basis of subtle olfactory cues that differentiate the two snakes. Paul Rozin has discussed the generalist-specialist issue in detail. Even specialist species are able to modulate innate olfactory responses based on experience. For generalists and specialists alike, neophobia —a cautious response to novel foods and odors—is universal.
This response is particularly adaptive for generalists because of the enormous array of possible food choices available and the greater risk of exposure to poisons. What has already been consumed is safe; what is unknown may or may not be safe.
The behavior of young humans attests to this. It is only after these smells become familiar or attractive, as a result of appropriate modeling by the adults, that children make discriminative responses. We can see further evidence that learning is the key mechanism by which generalists acquire odor responses if we look at aversions to tastes.
For example, presenting a rat with a sweet-tasting banana-smelling drink and then injecting the rat with lithium causes nausea and creates a conditioned avoidance of this smell in the future.
Researchers have shown that the conditioned aversion is to the smell, not the taste, of the substance. Although potentially socially disruptive, the long-term effects of learned taste aversion are clearly adaptive.
If poison is ingested, it is best to learn to avoid it permanently, rather than having to repeat the mistake until it kills you. The key point is that for generalists, banana and pepperoni are not inherently meaningful smells in themselves; rather, their association to pleasure or pain is what makes us interpret them as good or bad. There are important differences between emotional responses to taste and to smell. Research shows that the emotional response to sweet and bitter tastes is present at birth.
Responses to salt and sour tastes are also generally stereotypical, but some physical maturation after birth is required before they are elicited and the concentration of the substance also affects the emotional reaction.
By contrast, emotional responses to odors must be learned. All the essential constituents of foods—vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, and fats—are odorless. By contrast, some aspects of foodstuffs do have tastes: the sweetness of sucrose, the saltiness of sodium, and the bitterness of many poisons. Similarly, the trigeminal avoidance response to certain odors may be adaptive because toxic gases are often highly trigeminally irritating. So olfaction can direct our food choices, but only after we learn what the odors mean in relation to the foods in question.
A poisonous mushroom may smell somewhat different from an edible one, but there is no a priori poison mushroom smell. We must learn these differences by experience—preferably in the form of wisdom communicated by other members of our species, not direct contact. It is evolutionarily advantageous for the olfactory system of generalists not to be hardwired to like or dislike any particular odors, but rather to be readily predisposed to learn and remember what is good and what is bad based on experiences with them.
If we, as generalists, must learn our responses to odors, what does this say about the possible benefits of aromatherapy? Aromatherapy is based on the belief that various natural odors have an intrinsic essentially pharmacological ability to influence mood, cognition, and health.
For example, inhalation of mint is said to have a stimulating effect and lavender a sedative effect on our mood and physical state. There is no evidence, however, that these effects are anything but learned associations. The claim that certain odors can have a relaxing effect and others a stimulating one may be true, but this is because of the acquired meaning of the odors, not any intrinsic potency. Research reports on studies of the effects of odors on moods clearly point to the principle that odors people like induce a pleasant mood; odors they do not like induce an unpleasant mood.
Participants in experiments where purportedly pleasant odors are tested will not show the expected mood effects if they dislike the odor being presented. Moreover, positive mood effects supposedly elicited by pleasant ambient odors can be induced without any odor present. The joys of aromatherapy are in the mind of the smeller, produced not by direct action of the odor but rather by associations the individual has learned to the odor.
The context in which we typically encounter an odor helps support its aromatherapeutic effects. For example, in Western culture, lavender is commonly found in bath oils and soaps.
Air drying may be more effective than machine drying. Delicate fabrics may not survive vigorous washing in the machine. Try soaking delicate fabrics in the laundry detergent and baking soda solution for up to 30 minutes in the sink, instead.
Rinse and air dry. Repeat if needed. Soft surfaces that cannot be washed by hand or in a machine, such as carpets and couches, can be steam cleaned. You can purchase Skunk Off Liquid Soaker online. Skunk smell can permeate an entire home, including hard and soft surfaces. If your pet has been skunked outside, bathe them outdoors if possible so they cannot bring the smell in with them. If this cannot be avoided, or if a skunk sprays inside, near, or under your home, try the following:.
Skunk smell can cause a physical reaction including a runny nose, watering eyes, and nausea. It can last for days or longer if not removed. There are several at-home techniques and commercial products that can help remove skunk smell from people, pets, homes, and cars. Using the right products and acting quickly are key. There are a lot of ways to smell good all day, from wearing freshly laundered clothes to moisturizing with scented products.
Whether good to you means…. Learn about what gives marijuana its distinctly "skunky," strong odor, and how marijuana smells in plant form, when it's smoked, and more. Thank you for sharing your comment with us Thank you for sharing more about your dog today, "Wonder. Thanks for sharing your personal connection to today's Wonder, Anissa! We hope you guys didn't have to smell that stinky skunk smell for very long! We really like your guess about tomorrow's Wonder Way to go, Emilie!
We're glad your guess was correct! Thanks for leaving us such an interesting comment today, Maddie! We hope we don't ever get sprayed by a skunk, but if we do, we will try that special soap!
It sounds like it just might work! Thanks for sharing that you think tomorrow's Wonder might be about summer, cats, ingrown toenails or brain freezes. How cool that you used to live on a farm, Kristin! It must have been a GREAT experience to watch things grow and get to help take care of the plants and animals! Thanks for sharing that wit us today! We hope he and all of our other Wonder Friends keep stopping by and sharing comments with us!
Thanks for stopping by today's Wonder and letting us know you liked it, guys! Thanks for your comment today, Julia! We liked reading it and learning that you don't want to get anywhere near a spraying skunk! We know a few Wonder Friends who have skunks as pets, Van Dyk 3! We asked them if they were smelly, and they said the ones they have as pets don't have the ability to spray their stinky spray.
Last time I checked, you can go to the vet and get your pet skunks thing that makes it stink removed when it's a baby, then you can have it like a regular pet! We really appreciate your comment today, Alikah! Thanks for sharing your thoughts about skunks!
We think the babies are super cute, too! Thanks for letting us know, Van Dyk 3! Guess what? We checked with the Wonderopolis postmaster yesterday and he said we haven't received any black hole letters from our Wonder Friends yet. We will keep an eye out for yours The baby ones in today's Wonder video were especially cute so cute that we might even excuse their future smelliness.
Thanks so much for sharing what you know about skunks, Kaleb! We appreciate your comment today! Here is a really informative website link that might help you guys learn the answers to some of your extra WONDERings about skunks We appreciate their sense of humor, too!
Thanks so much for letting us know. Howdy, Nasir! Skunks really ARE cute, Linna! Thank you for hanging out in Wonderopolis with us today and letting us know how you feel about skunks! We're not sure about the answers for all of them Maybe you can even share what you find out with everyone here in Wonderopolis Tomorrow's Wonder just might have something to do with a garden, but it also might have something to do with the kitchen and the dining room, too!
We'll have to wait and see we're super excited to find out! That's a great question, Brayan! We think the man in the video meant that the baby skunks don't have the full amount of chemicals in their bodies yet to make the really powerful "skunk" smell when protecting themselves. They have just enough to make a gassy kind of "poof" instead of a stream of chemicals.
We really like her name! Be sure to visit Wonderopolis during the "non-school" months, too! We are proud of you guys for working so hard this year and appreciate that you included visits to Wonderopolis in your learning time!
You guys ROCK! We think it was really interesting to learn that some of you guys don't think a skunk smell is too smelly. We will have to have an open Wonder mind the next time we smell a skunk and consider if we REALLY think it stinks, or if we could live with the smell. We think dogs might get "skunked" because the are super inquisitive animals, "Wonder!
Thank you for sharing about your dog today, "Wonder. It can be a hard thing to deal with when you lose a pet. We think it's good to talk to a grown-up about things like this if we find ourselves feeling extra sad.
We really appreciate you telling all your friends in Wonderopolis about him. Thank you for sharing that you got to visit the library today We think skunks are really cute, too, Gloria! Especially those orphaned baby skunks from today's Wonder video! We will admire them from a great distance though!
We thought it was concerning that male skunks will eat the babies if they are left alone, too. Sometimes it is even to destroy any potential future competition like with big cats. Nature is really interesting to learn about! We can help you with the answer to your onion question Thanks for leaving us a comment today, Syndey!
That's a really interesting guess, Mr. Thanks so much for sharing it with us today! We can't wait to visit Wonderopolis tomorrow to see if your guess is correct!
We're so, so sorry about your cat, Mr. They really do become like part of the family and it's tough when they go. Sometimes if we're feeling extra sad about something, we feel it helps to talk to a teacher or a grown-up about it. We hope you'll do that today if you need to! Thank you for sharing that you liked this Wonder today! We are undergoing some spring clearing site maintenance and need to temporarily disable the commenting feature.
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Help spread the wonder of families learning together. We sent you SMS, for complete subscription please reply. Follow Twitter Instagram Facebook. Why do skunks stink? Why do skunks spray? How far can a skunk spray? Any ideas? We know. Wonder What's Next? Tomorrow's Wonder of the Day pays a visit to a colorful little critter! Try It Out Continue to explore today's subject by checking out one or more of the following activities with a friend or family member: Skunks aren't the only animals that can stink.
Check out these Top 10 Smelliest Animals. Are there any animals on this list that you're familiar with? Do any of them surprise you?
After reading, summarize what you learned about these smelly animals for a friend or family member. Even though skunks might be really stinky, they can still be really cute, too. Some people even keep the animals as pets!
Check out these pictures of baby skunks. Would you want to have a pet skunk? Why or why not? Talk with a family member about what you think it would be like to have a pet skunk.
Enough talk about things that stink. Let's focus on some things that smell good. What are some of your favorite smells? Are there any scents that you associate with good memories? Maybe you love the smell of bacon frying or of a pizza baking in the oven. How about the scents of flowers or of the air after a storm?
Identify your favorite smell and write a few sentences about why you like it. Then, ask an adult to help you share what you wrote on social media and invite others to share their favorite smells. Be sure to tag us wonderopolis!
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