Male ring-tail lemurs exude a fruity-smelling mix of odours from their wrists and waft it into the air using their fluffy tails to attract mates, a study found.
The unusual mating practice — known as ‘stink flirting’ — uses three different fragrant compounds, researchers from Japan found.
Once they have rubbed their scent on their tails, the male lemurs perform a tail-twirling dance to woo the females — who can’t get enough of the natural cologne.
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Male ring-tail lemurs exude a fruity-smelling mix of odours from their wrists and waft it into the air using their fluffy tails to attract mates, a study found
Lemurs have a stronger sense of smell than many creatures — including humans and apes — and use scents to communicate.
During breeding seasons, male ring-tailed lemurs perform scent-wafting displays to attract potential mates.
This involves rubbing the glands on their wrists against their fluffy tails, which they then wave at females.
Researchers from the University of Tokyo spent seven years studying the odours that male ring-tailed lemurs release in order to begin stink flirting.
To do this, they collected clear liquid from the males’ wrist glands during both breeding and non-breeding seasons and analysed its chemical components using so-called ‘gas chromatography-mass spectrometry’.
This is a technique that identifies chemicals based on their electrical charge, molecular weight and other properties.
New technology was also used to analyse small samples without having to rely on a complicated pre-treatment procedure first.
The unusual mating practice — known as ‘stink flirting’ — uses three different fragrant compounds, researchers from Japan found
Once they have rubbed their scent on their tails, the male lemurs perform a tail-twirling dance to woo the females — who can’t get enough of the natural cologne
The researchers found that the natural cologne that male ring-tailed lemurs use to attract a mate is made up of three chemicals with fruity floral scents.
The odour compounds — dodecanal, 12-methyltridecanal and tetradecanal — were more abundant in the wrist gland liquid collected during the breeding season.
Another compound — acetamide — was less so.
Odour communication experts say that these chemicals could be the first fully-identified sex pheromones in primates.
Researchers also studied testosterone levels in male lemurs, which are naturally higher during the breeding season and at younger ages.
The team artificially increased testosterone levels in a young, healthy male during the non-breeding season.
They found that his odour compounds increased — rising up to a level similar to that normally seen during the breeding season.
Researchers from the University of Tokyo spent seven years studying the odours that male ring-tailed lemurs release in order to begin stink flirting
The team also collected and saved wrist gland secretions from males during breeding season, by soaking up the liquid in cotton pads.
They then presented these to female lemurs outside of the breeding season — but they found that the primates showed little real interest.
The researchers also wanted to discover if any of the three odour compounds were more important for attracting females’ attention.
To do this, they presented female lemurs with cotton pads soaked either one of the three individual odour compounds, a blend of the three to mimic normal male breeding season secretions or a neutral control liquid.
In their normal social environment, female lemurs showed no significant interest in any of the individual male odour compounds.
But the more natural blend of the three did capture their interest — measured as a longer time spent sniffing.
The team collected clear liquid from the males’ wrist glands, pictured, during both breeding and non-breeding seasons and analysed its chemical components using so-called ‘gas chromatography-mass spectrometry’
‘What made our study different is that we have expertise in chemistry, while most studies of animal communication are done by ecologists,’ said paper author Kazushige Touhara of the University of Tokyo.
‘It remains impossible to predict what the three likely lemur sex pheromones might mean for other primates, including humans. There are no humans waving tails at each other.’
‘Maybe there are no sex pheromones in humans, but there are probably odours — like parents smelling their baby’s heads — that we use to affect each other’s emotions.’
Researchers cannot yet refer to the odours identified in lemurs as official sex pheromones, as — by scientific definition — a pheromone must be used for communication solely between members of a single species.
However, the team hopes that ecologists and zoologists can use this new information to increase understanding of primate behaviour.
The full findings of the study were published in the journal Current Biology.