permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

[Another important factoid that could apply to in depth permaculture
systems design. - LL]

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Hyenas Send Smelly Signals With Bacterias’ Help : News : Counsel & Heal
http://www.counselheal.com/articles/7600/20131112/hyenas-send-smelly-signals-with-bacterias-help.htm

“When hyenas leave paste deposits on grass, the sour-smelling signals relay
reams of information for other animals to read,” said Kevin Theis who is
the paper’s lead author and also a MSU postdoctoral researcher in a press
release. “Hyenas can leave a quick, detailed message and go. It’s like a
bulletin board of who’s around and how they’re doing.”

During the study, researchers collected pastes from stripped and spotted
hyenas from different forests located in Kenya. They then identified those
bacterias by examining their genes.

“It’s an extremely important study showing the role of bacteria mediating
interactions between mammals,” said David Hughes according to Live
Science.<http://www.livescience.com/41108-hyenas-microbe-communication.html>
David
is a researcher at Penn State and is not involved in the study. “Only now
are we discovering the role of what we think of as inconsequential
passengers — the bacteria — and how important they are.”

However hyenas are not the only mammals that communicate through bacterial
secretions.

The result is another proof that microbial communities are vital for
animals well being.

“We often look at hyenas as one organism,” Hughes added in the press
release. “But it’s not an organism, it’s a collection of genes that belong
to the hyenas and the microbes. And that’s true for hyenas, humans, aphids
— wherever we look, it’s a collection of organisms.”