Up close and personal? I can’t even begin to describe it. It’s not even so much a smell as it feels like acid burning your nostrils and eyes and simultaneously stomach churning so you want to gag or vomit until it is cleaned off. I would rather fall face first in a fresh cow pie than be sprayed by a skunk again.
Quite literally. Human and other mammal scent receptors are very sensitive to thiols, sulfur compounds that are frequently found in sources of danger, like rotting corpses, feces, and toxic gas. Skunks evolved their spray to take advantage of this with high concentrations of thiols and compounds that help to adhere to things. It’s like an olfactory flashbang.
What does it smell like?
From a distance? Really good weed.
Up close and personal? I can’t even begin to describe it. It’s not even so much a smell as it feels like acid burning your nostrils and eyes and simultaneously stomach churning so you want to gag or vomit until it is cleaned off. I would rather fall face first in a fresh cow pie than be sprayed by a skunk again.
Wow that’s quite the bioweapon!
Quite literally. Human and other mammal scent receptors are very sensitive to thiols, sulfur compounds that are frequently found in sources of danger, like rotting corpses, feces, and toxic gas. Skunks evolved their spray to take advantage of this with high concentrations of thiols and compounds that help to adhere to things. It’s like an olfactory flashbang.