Rats Aren’t Just Smelling When They Sniff Each Other

Thursday, March 7, 2013 at 12:00 PM

As any pet lover will attest, animals like to sniff each other.  Certain smells signal attraction, fear, or at least tell one animal where the other has been.  But what if this act of sniffing serves another purpose?  That’s what a Case Western Reserve University neuroscientist found to be the case, at least in rats.

Anne Glausser reports.

Daniel Wessen says animals sniff each other to communicate.

And the rats in his experiment would speed up or slow down their rate of sniffing to signal dominance, or submission.

WESSEN:  What we found was that when one animal sniffs another, it actually communicates to the other animal that animal’s social status.

Because Wessen’s rats had their sense of smell knocked out, they weren’t sniffing each other to get odor-based information, they were establishing who was in charge.

WESSEN:  A rat will approach another rat and go from (demonstrates slow sniffing) to really really fast sniffing (demonstrates).

Then, the subordinate rat would respond by slowing down their sniffs, as if to say…

WESSEN:  They’re ok with the other animal’s dominance, they’re reflecting their submissiveness, and they don’t want to fight.

Wessen says they’re not sure if other animals sniff to communicate, but it’s possible.  And worth more investigation.

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Arts and Culture, Natural Sciences, Miscellaneous