Why is the skunk's odor so terrible?

Answer 1

The best-known, most distinctive, and often most notorious feature of the skunks is the great development of their anal scent glands, which they can use as a defensive weapon. It is similar, though much more developed than the glands found in species of the Mustelidae family. They have two glands, on either side of the anus, that produce a mixture of sulfur-containing chemicals (methyl and butyl thiols) that has a highly offensive smell. The odor of the fluid is strong enough to ward off bears and other potential attackers, and can be difficult to remove from clothing. Muscles located next to the scent glands allow them to spray with high accuracy as far as 2 to 3 metres (7 to 10 ft). The smell aside, the spray can cause irritation and even temporary blindness, and is sufficiently powerful to be detected by even an insensitive human nose anywhere up to a mile downwind. Their chemical defense, though unusual, is effective.

Answer 2

Thiols, the compounds that make skunk odor so... er, distinctive, are chemicals to which our noses are super-sensitive. We can detect thiols at the level of parts per billion. In other words, if thiols make up just a few billionths of the volume of air and other gases in a room, we can smell them.

As for the foul quality of the smell, that's largely due to the sulfur in the thiols. Sulfur is a key component of many other obnoxious smells, like rotten eggs or human flatulence. Another kind of sulfur thiol is actually added to natural gas (which is itself odorless) so we can easily smell a gas leak.

Skunk spray also contains chemical compounds called thioacetates, which decompose very slowly into (guess what?) thiols. So not only are you hit with an initial blast of thiols, but you get a slow release of thiols from the thioacetates for a long time to come. That's why the smell of skunk tends to linger for so long.

You may have heard that tomato juice gets out skunk spray. But according to Wood, that's an illusion. He explains that skunk odor is so powerful, and binds so tightly to the odor receptors in your nose, that after a while you stop smelling it as strongly. Your receptors get tired out: in fact, it's called "olfactory fatigue." If you've ever been in a kitchen cooking smelly food, you may have noticed that you get used to the smell after a while. But if you leave the room for fifteen minutes and then come back, the smell is overpowering.

The same thing happens when you use tomato juice on skunk spray. Tomato juice also has a strong smell, so at first your nose reacts more to the new tomato juice smell than to the old skunk smell. But after a while, the effect wears off, and you're back to smelling like skunk (or skunk parmagiana).

The hydrogen peroxide and baking soda recipe that Wood suggests (invented by Illinois chemist Paul Krebaum) works better because it actually changes the chemistry of the skunk spray. It converts the smelly compounds into odorless chemicals. But the drawback is that you have to apply it to a surface; for skunk smell in the air, the best solution is to open a window.

Thanks for asking the question, I didn't know this until I checked it out myself.

Answer 3

Thiols, which are compounds containing atoms of sulfur and hydrogen, produce the initial, highly offensive odor. Our noses are ultra-sensitive to such compounds.

Salt derivatives from the thiols also are repulsive, but convert to thiols when they get wet, and are probably the source of the skunk smell that comes out when a supposedly cleansed spraying victim gets wet.

Answer 4

Because of a compound called thiol,which gives the skunk's odor a horrifying,strong and bad smell.They use it for defence.

Answer 5

it's meant to scare other animals off. the skunk sprays when threatened. the foul odor deters other animals/people from continuing to bother the skunk. If it wasn't foul, it wouldn't work as a protective mechanism and the skunk would lose its defenses.

Answer 6

It has sulfur compounds (Thiols specifically), that create the stink.

Ever been to a fertilizer plant? It has the same compounds. (Great place to work)

Answer 7

because it's part of it's defense system to protect it from predators that want to eat it.