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I'm Karen Hopkins.

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Chances are you've never seen a bintirong.

It's a tree-dwelling mammal about the size of a raccoon that's native to Southeast Asia.

But if you've ever been to the movies, you'd be familiar with their scent.

That's because Bintarongs smell like freshly cooked popcorn.

And now, in a major advance in research connecting animal odors to human

recreational venues, researchers know why. In the wild,

bintirongs, also called bear cats, are thought to spend most of their time alone.

So to communicate with potential mates or rivals, they leave behind aromatic messages.

Although to you and me, there Musk evokes a matinee to other animals it reads pure bintirong.

But previous studies of the animals scent glands fail to find chemicals that could account for the distinctive stank.

Desperate for an answer, the researchers opted to peruse some pee.

They ever so gently squeezed 33 sedated bintarongs at a North Carolina wildlife sanctuary to produce urine for analysis.

And they discovered that the samples contained a compound called two acetyl 1 peroline, or 2 AP, which is the very same chemical that lends its distinctive

scent to popcorn, as well as to some rice and breads.

The finding is served up in the journal Naturviss and Shaftan or the science of nature.

Popcorn gets its 2 AP from the Mayard reaction.

Chemistry that occurs as corn kernels heat up.

But for Bearcats, who don't have access to an air-popper, it's probably the bacteria present

on their fur or in their intestines that help cook up their signature scent. The researchers confirmed that the animals don't get their 2 AP from their diet, which in captivity includes kibbles and mice.

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