This is Scientific Americans 60 Second Science.

I'm Karen Hopkins.

Got a minute.

Ring-tailed leemers are a chatty lot.

They vocalize to exchange information.

They also communicate via a veritable smorgas board of stinky secretions

they use to mark their territory and advertise their romantic availability.

But male leemers, which have more scent glands than do females,

are really masters of musk, because they sometimes mix their smelly secretions to produce a veritable

bouquet of stank.

And now researchers have a better idea why.

Male leemers sometimes use the scent glands on their wrists to mark tree branches and saplings.

Other times, they double down,

rubbing their wrists against glands on their chests

to create a foul and funky fusion.

This special blend can then be smeared over objects

or wiped onto their tails, which the males wave at their rivals in a

display that scientists refer to as a stink fight.

But why create such a custom combination?

Perhaps adding the oily exudate from the chest

alters the information conveyed by the wrist, or maybe it acts as a kind of

preservative that makes the wrist signal longer lasting.

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