Why Do Carnivores Lust for Blood?

The fact that blood carries a distinct stench is well known and has even given rise to a few myths. Bears are not drawn to menstruating female campers. Sharks cannot detect a single drop of blood in a vast ocea. But their ability to home in on blood in the water is still impressive: they can detect the equivalent of 10 drops of blood in the average home pool. It makes sense for the smell of blood to be so potent. A carnivore can use the scent to track wounded prey, and the prey species can use it as an alert that danger is close.

You might assume this comes from the iron in our blood, but an organic compound—a type of aldehyde—is to blame. But, in a new study, researchers found that this single component drew the interest of tigers and wild dogs just as much as the scent of fresh horse blood. Whatever other complicated smells were in the horse blood did not make it more intriguing to the carnivores; this one compound by itself was enough to attract their full attention.



A Single Smelly Compound Sparks Carnivores' Lust for Blood | Smart News | Smithsonian

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