By sequencing the DNA of the resident microbes, he found more types of bacteria than all the previous surveys put together. He also showed that these bacteria, and the chemicals they produce, vary between spotted and striped hyenas, between spotted hyenas from different clans, between males and females, and between fertile and infertile ones.31 Based on these differences, the paste could act as chemical graffiti that reveal who their makers are, which species they’re from, how old they are, and whether they’re ready to mate. By impregnating grass stalks with their smelly microbes, hyenas spray
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