Why bearcats smell like buttered popcorn. Duke Today, April 13, 2016. The bearcat. The binturong. Whatever you call this shy, shaggy-haired creature from Southeast Asia, many people who have met one notice the same thing:  it smells like a movie theater snack bar. Most describe it as hot buttered popcorn. And for good reason — the chemical compound that gives freshly made popcorn its mouthwatering smell is also the major aroma emitted by binturong pee, finds a new study. Picked up by Huffington Post, Scientific American, Discovery News, National Geographic, NPR in Boston, New York Magazine, the Daily Mail, Science News and Popular Science.