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INDIVIDUAL BIOMARKERS. “It is worth separating the concepts of pheromones and signature mixtures (it was a mistake in my 2003 book to combine them). It is precisely because individuals have different odour profiles that these can be learnt and used to distinguish different animals.” https://lnkd.in/drx5_4e View in LinkedIn

MATING CUE. “Charles Darwin proposed that the breeding season sexual smells of male crocodiles, goats and other animals, too, could have evolved by sexual selection of the smelliest males through female choice. But it’s not just sex.” Ever smelled a billy goat? View in LinkedIn

BOMBSHELL. “With few exceptions, learning underlies all recognition.” https://lnkd.in/drx5_4e View in LinkedIn

BEHAVIOR OBSERVED. “The reality of invisible chemical signals, pheromones, between members of the same species was recognized long before they could be identified.” https://lnkd.in/drx5_4e View in LinkedIn

LEARNED ODORANTS. “Pheromones are one kind of semiochemical, chemicals giving information. Another kind of semiochemical, signature mixtures, are the basis of individual recognition based on learning the different chemical profiles of individuals, allowing familiar and unfamiliar animals to be distinguished.” https://lnkd.in/drx5_4e View in LinkedIn

UNDERESTIMATED SENSE. “Our olfactory sense is well developed, even if it has often been underestimated.” https://peerj.com/preprints/27908/ View in LinkedIn

CLASSIC ODORANTS. “Pheromones are the same in all sexually mature males, for example, of a species. It is the consistency in these molecules between individual males in a population which allows them to be identified as a pheromone. Some males may produce more of the pheromone and thus may be more attractive to females: well-fed male voles with high testosterone levels produce more pheromone.” https://lnkd.in/drx5_4e View in LinkedIn

CONDITIONS PRECEDENT. “While, typically, pheromones do not need to be learnt, if development is interfered with by an experimenter, previously invisible dependencies can be revealed. For example, honeybee workers need early exposure to queen mandibular pheromone in order to be attracted to it when they attend the queen as older workers.” https://lnkd.in/drx5_4e View in LinkedIn

PRIMED WHEN LOADED. “Male Agrotis moths do not respond to female sex pheromone for up to 24 hours after mating. Even though pheromone still stimulates the olfactory sensory neurons in the male moth’s antennae, the brain response is blocked until enough time has elapsed for the male to have replenished his accessory protein stores to go with his sperm. Male hamsters only respond to female pheromone if they are well fed, giving them sufficiently high blood testosterone levels in their hypothalamus.” https://lnkd.in/drx5_4e View in LinkedIn

NUANCED RESPONSES. “Pheromones elicit stereotyped behavioural and/or physiological responses but these are modulated by context, time of day, and many other factors including the receiver’s genetics, age, sex, hormonal state, dominance status, and recent experience.” https://lnkd.in/drx5_4e View in LinkedIn