A year-long study of silverback gorillas in the rainforests of the Central African Republic has shown that the primates can communicate with their body odor. Focusing on the dominant male in the group, and monitoring the smells he and the other gorillas are giving off, researchers have found that gorillas can control their level of body odor to signal other gorillas in the group.
A year-long study of silverback gorillas in the rainforests of the Central African Republic has shown that the primates can communicate with their body odor.
Focusing on the dominant male in the group, and monitoring the smells he and the other gorillas gave off, researchers found they could control their level of body odor to signal other gorillas in the group.
For example, when gorillas got too close to the dominant male, he would emit a stronger smell as a way to tell the other gorilla to back up, or a milder smell so that the gorillas in his group knew where he was.
When a strange gorilla was nearby, the male turned off his scent, which experts think is a way of preventing the other gorilla from knowing who or where he is.
Authors of the study wrote that their “results suggest that silverbacks may use context specific chemo-signals to moderate the social behaviors of other gorillas.”
Extreme odors from the dominant male gorilla were only detected along with visual displays of threatening behavior, or loud grunting noises.
Studies have shown that humans can also communicate subconsciously by omitting body odors triggered by fear or disgust that others can then smell.