Animals Exhibiting This Behavior
The flehmen response has been observed in almost all ungulate species and some felids, species of the Felidae family. It is an animal behavior that utilizes the vomeronasal organ, a part of the accessory olfactory system, for chemical communication. Male individuals commonly use the flehmen response as an olfactory mechanism for identifying the reproductive state of females of the same species using pheromones in the urine or genitals. This has been exhibited in sheep, where flehmen by rams following sniffing of the ewes’ external genital region occurred most frequently on the day before estrus, when the ewes were sexually receptive. Females and young also carry out this behavior. In young horses, both colts (males) and fillies (females) exhibit flehmen behavior towards other conspecifics with neither sex performing the behavior more than the other. Young elephants also make use of the flehmen response to stimulants. The vomeronasal organ of newborn elephants displays a structural maturity similar to adults, which supports the conclusion that flehmen at only six weeks of age is used to deliver chemical pheromones to a functional vomeronasal organ. This response is not limited to conspecific communication. Goats have been tested for their flehmen response to urine from 20 different species including several non-mammalian. This study suggests there is a common element in the urine of all animals, a pheromone, which elicits the flehmen behavior. Specifically, chemical pheromone levels of a modified form of androgen, a sex hormone, were associated with the response in goats.
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