I’m waiting for humans to do the same.
Mandrills, a type of monkey found the in the African rain forests, congregate according to how each other’s poop smells. Bad smelling poop means parasites. “Yo, stay away from Bob today. I smelled his ass, I think he’s got a case of the worms.” Will do!
This type of behavior actually saves their lives. It’s called “behavioral immune system.” I call it fascinating. This all comes out of a study headed by Clémence Poirotte. She says that this behavioral immune system “refers to the suite of behavioral mechanisms that act as a first line of defense against parasites and pathogens,” i.e. ass and s**t smelling.
Parasites and other infectious diseases alter how the body’s smell, and in turn, how poopy smells. This isn’t new. Dogs have been smelling out cancer in cancer patients for awhile. Dogs also smell each other’s buttholes. The question then is do dogs socialize by how each other’s butthole smells? If not, why not? Please get someone on this.
Poirotte goes on to say that more research is needed. For example, what happens when parasites can modify themselves to have no smells? How do these monkeys socialize at that point?
If only humans did this, smelling someone’s butthole would not be as taboo.