When trying to attracte a mate many animals use diverse techniques to grab the other's attention.  We as humans may flash a pretty smile, while birds strut around and show off their exquisit arrangement of feathers.  Yet, those animals with a sense of smell use pheremones as a mean of perssuasion.

    Elephants have used various forms of communication to interact with one another.  Parents may point their trunks at one another in a certain fashion to display an emotion, while a mother may use a specific call to get the attention of her offspring telling them it is time to eat.  One of their most frequently used forms of communication is their sense of smell.  It is used to let others in the herd know their age and maturity.

"Smell is the most highly developed sense in elephants. They can pick up surrounding scents on the breeze, and they constantly feel and
smell each other with their trunks"(Kemf).  "For young male elephants, youth is so sweet you can actually smell it"(Onion).

    Every young male Asian Elephant goes through musth which is a
heightended period of sexual activity, or what we like to call puberty.
When following the young male Asian elephant, researchers learned that the males give off a scent that smells much like honey.  This secretion of scent comes from the olfactory gland which is between their eyes and ears.  "It is interesting that their exudates actually contain several chemicals also present in honey"(Nature).

    These young males use their sweet smell to conveny a few  messages to their herd.  They produce this smell to inform the female elephants of  their youthful innocence.  They also use this scent to keep themselves out of trouble with the older male elephants in the herd.  Bets Rasmussen, a biochemist at the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology in Beaverton, conducted a study on the form of communication dealing with the scents given off by the elephants.  "For the most part, oldermales showed little reaction when they were in proximity of the sweet secretions of male youths"(Onion).  Rasmussen stated, "They could care less.  But when the younger males smelled the rancid secretions of adult males, they stayed clear.

    Even though they may stay clear the females find the adult scent
attractive.  Rasmussen stated, "To people, it's a foul smell, but female
elephants are very interested."  She says that the females think of it as a sign of a "healthy, virile bull."  It is not only the males who use scent as a form of communication, the females use it too.  "When they are ready to mate, female Asian elephants release a pheromone in their urine"(Onion).  The male then smells the pheromone and becomes aroused by the odor.

    Asian elephant herds communicate with one another through their dominant sense of smell.  They use it to their advantage as way of
informing one another of their sexual energy and innocence.   This has aided us to view the animals in a more personal manner. And it has allowed us to see how such lovely creatures use their wonderful sensory organs as a mean of communication.  It also allows us to use them as examples when comparing them to ourselves.

    I never knew that elephants secreted a certain smell to identify with a certain period in their life.  I liked the fact that Rasmussen compared her study of elephants to that of humans and how we too can detect chemical signals.  You can not help but wonder if your perfume really works.

Biblography

John Whitfield.  Honey smells like teen elephant.
http://www.nature.com/nsu/020225?020225-8.html

Deborah Hill.  Why Young Male Elephants Smell Like Honey.
http://bric.postech.ac.kr/science/97now/02_2now/020227b.html

Rob Slotow and Gus van Dyk.  Mush and elephant Society.
http://www.und.ac.za/und/lesci/elephant/musth.htm

Amanda Onion.  Sweet Smell of Youth.
http://printerfriendly.abcne...fetchFromGLUE=true&GLUEService=ABCNewsCom