Alie Ward

But apparently, if the sea lampreys took some time away from the alarm odor, they were more attenuated and active in avoiding the threat.

So maybe every day read a romance novel, watch your favorite show for an hour or two, give your brain a break.

That way you can stay angry and active.

Right now, any skunks, if you're listening to this, you're like, okay, great.

But what does this have to do with me?

Would that also warn a predator?

Like if you're a coyote walking around, you're a bobcat and you start to smell skunk, would you be like, ugh, I'm out of here.

This is like a restaurant that stinks.

I know you want more on this, so you can please report to some cozy book nook and curl up with the paper, Aversive or Attractive?

The Effects of Skunk Oil on Predator Behavior by Professor Holly Schiefebein and our own Dr. Ted out of, yes, his lab at California State Long Beach.

So this study notes that skunk carcasses have been encountered...

in which everything except the anal glands had been consumed by scavengers.

Like they were leftovers, and it notes probably coyotes, which could indicate an aversion to and avoidance of the oil contained within these glands.

But the researchers in this study, they made skunk decoys out of tanned hides, and half of them they kept black and white striped, and the other half they dyed, they bleached them, and then they paired some with the smell of skunk.

So they wanted to see if the coloration in conjunction with the smell did anything.

And the study found that scented models were less likely to be visited, indicating, yes, there was an avoidance of the oil.

But some of my favorite passages of research papers in general are always hiding out in the methodology section.

This one did not disappoint.

So they had to make over skunk pelts into a more neutral color so that they had striped ones and that they had just drab brown ones.

So the lab had to create the brown pelts