Ocelots Go Crazy for Calvin Klein
| In
Texas, Dallas Zoo researchers are looking for ways to save the Ocelot by
encouraging the endangered cats to breed and they may have found a scent
that drives them wild -- Calvin Klein Obsession for Men cologne.
Four female ocelots in captivity reacted more powerfully to the cologne than to natural odors tested in a project aimed at using scents to guide ocelots to each other in the wild, Dallas Zoo research curator Dr. Cynthia Bennett said. "We thought about what would work with them and used things like rat feces and ocelot scent," Bennett told Reuters, the news organization. "Then on a lark my research technician brought in cologne because a lot of other animals like it and we put Obsession out and our ocelots went wild over it," she said. The cats reacted by rolling and rubbing themselves against the spot where the scent was applied in a response much like domestic cats show to catnip," Bennett said. Bennett said there are about 100 to 120 of the Texas subspecies of ocelot left in the wild, living in scattered habitats. The zoo's research aims to find a way to guide them together along scent corridors so they can breed more easily and often. Zoo researchers have contacted the Calvin Klein Cosmetics Co. about the findings, Bennett said. "They thought it was cute. I think they were grateful we weren't trying it on vultures," she said. |