do pheromones cross species boundaries? (self.zoophilia)
submitted 2016-10-23 20:19:31 by actuallynotazoophile ok, I lied
Obviously there is no research done on this so I'm just after everyones thoughts and anecdotal evidence. Going from my experiences I am going to have to give a resounding yes, they absolutely do, but still a part of me wonders if thats just my zoo brain making me jump to conclusions.
Following on from the logic that we are all mammals then it makes sense to me that the pheromones each species uses surely cant be all that different.
I don't know, really, but I'll recount a RadioLab story I heard recently on a related subject.
A biologist went out to the jungles of Thailand to study the ways different monkeys communicate with each other. One type, which I'll call howler monkeys though I don't remember it, would vocalize to warn when predators were nearby. At first, the biologist couldn't tell these things apart, but when he went back and analyzed his recordings with a spectrometer, he noticed a difference between the way they'd signal about leopards (they would all climb into the trees in response) and eagles (they would all go down to the ground in response). Then he wondered if other species would recognize this and react accordingly, and every primate species in the area understood those calls. Even some bird species understood them and reacted the same way.
My point is that different species living together can learn to recognize each others' signals, especially if they coexist long enough and have some social awareness of their own. It wouldn't surprise me if such recognition of pheromones did occur, and that it plays a larger role with dogs than with us mainly because they have better senses of smell.
I can't say I factually know that they do, but I do suspect they do, at least with mammals. It would explain a large number of things I experienced with my Willow.
I've also heard many zoos say animals have a "zoodar." Maybe there is more to that seemingly bogus theory than meets the eye.
I would not expect a lot of overlap outside of closely related species.
It's an experiment I have been meaning to test for a long time, but I have not yet done.
I have heard a number of people claim that the smell of a bitch in heat drives them crazy. I am skeptical, at best, of the claim. I want to swab a bitch in heat, a bitch out of season, and a few other samples, such as an empty swab and have a number of zoos sniff, then rate them in order of preference to see if there's a significant result. I don't expect there to be, but I suppose it's possible. M
I'm certainly open to being proven wrong. Would be interested to hear the results if you ever do this.
Well, if they do smell recognizably different, you run into a different problem, where someone might just have an association between that smell and sexual activity. In other words, it could be a matter of classical conditioning.
If you wanted to test whether a dog's scent had any impact on human mentality, I wonder if you could do something like... Take a bunch of people who don't have a stated attraction to dogs. Have them rate the appearance of women on a scale from 1-10. That's your first group. Your second group does the same, but in the room the scent of a dog in heat is present. Then you test whether there is a significant difference in how they rate the attractiveness of the women.
Similar studies have been done which shows that human pheromones have an impact, so we know, conceptually, that it works.
That would show whether or not humans in general are affected by such pheromones.
I suppose a similar study could be done with (canine) zoophiles, but getting enough people willing to participate would be quite difficult.
Bitch in heat smell is definitely different from bitch not in heat. I can smell that from being in the same room, specially if the bitch is furry (as the smell gets entangled in the hairs as has a stronger smell) every day I'm more like a male dog. ;)
Of course, a male dog would had sniffed that from around the block, where I need to be in the same room.
I would love to see such study or be part of it.
I heard sometimes stallions misbehave when close to a woman that is having her period.
Horses are not the only ones that misbehave. >_<;
I don't know if cat pheromones do, but I know every my last girlfriend was in heat I could tell and I would get horny. So they might.
I think is possible, since humans are mammals and other animals are mammals, we share common smells that may trigger sex reactions. As other have said, maybe girls on her period with their elevated hormones may be noticed by males and make them a bit hornier than normal.
Dogs will get more frisky when you're ovulating.