Cheetahs Love Men’s Cologne
Who would have guessed that wild cats like men’s cologne? Not me, that’s for sure, apparently in order to stimulate the animals curiosity, zookeepers spray cologne and perfume on trees and rocks. Pat Thomas, the general curator for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo in New York, tested which fragrance that cheetahs responded to most positively. Using 2 cheetahs and 24 fragrances, he recorded how long it would take them to notice, and how long they interacted with it. Obsession won at 11.1 minutes, 2nd place was Nina Ricci’s L’Air du Temps at 10.4 minutes and Estee Lauder’s Beautiful, held their attention for a whopping 2 seconds.
In 2007 a study was done in Guatemala using jaguar’s with Obsession on a rag and the rag covering the camera, 3 times as many walked up to the camera. Ann Gottlieb, who helped create the men’s cologne, Obsession, told The Wall Street Journal “it sparks curiosity with humans, and, apparently, animals.”
So now we know how the phrase “animal attraction” came to be.