Patrick Thomas of the Bronx Zoo and the Wildlife Conservation Society talks about scent enrichment programs for big cats held in captivity, and how perfumes are used in the field to assist in learning more about wild animals. Hat tip to Jane!
Send your old perfume to the big cats
The folks at the San Diego Zoo want your "old or unused cologne and perfume":
The Behavioral Biology Division of the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research is currently conducting a research project examining individual and species enrichment preferences for large felids (lions, tigers, and cheetahs) at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park (see post, Big Cat Preferences, Part 2). Based on some preliminary results, we are interested in learning more about different scents (perfumes) that attract the animals and promote the behavior of exploration.
For information about how to donate, go here. Many thanks to odonata9 for the link!
See also: Tiger Bait, Not Just For Tigers, Curious, unpredictable, and mischievous
Tiger bait
To wine and dine Sasha, a 450-pound Siberian tiger at the Bronx Zoo, try serving beef and rabbit. To lure him for a snack, whip out the frozen treats his zookeepers call "bloodcicles." But to really get his olfactory engines running, you need the secret weapon: Calvin Klein's Obsession for Men.
— From Big Cats Obsess Over Calvin Klein's 'Obsession for Men' at the Wall Street Journal.
Curious, unpredictable, and mischievous
Bai Yun is curious, unpredictable, and mischievous. She enjoys anything scented with cloves or pine and men's cologne!
— From Meet the Pandas at the San Diego Zoo, where the the pandas "like to play with enrichment items like piles of ice or sawdust, puzzles made of bamboo with food inside, and different scents like spices". At the moment of this writing, you can watch Bai Yun sleeping in the birthing den on the zoo's Panda Cam. Many thanks to JanJan for the link.