Cats smell with their noses AND a special gland
Date: Fri, 19 Jun 1998 10:32:39 +0100 (BST) Subject: Re: FEL-L: Lion Question (fwd)
The organ in the roof of the mouth is called the vomeronasal organ, or Jacobson's organ, and is present in many land mammals and reptiles, though not in humans. It provides a way of testing for chemical scents in the air which is separate from the ordinary senses of smell in the nostrils and taste on the tongue. The usual way of using it is to stick out the tongue to catch a trace of the scent, and then withdraw it into the mouth and push the tip up into the vomeronasal organ. This causes the face pulling effect in mammals, but not of course in snakes, even though this is what they are doing when their tongues are flicking in and out.
> Flehming is a sensory memory. The roof of the mouth stores scent.
> Euphemistically called a stinky face. Tigers & other large cats do this as well.
> Gary Breuckman wrote:
> > We maintain a biology site and we recently received an interesting question about lions. The person would like to know, " what is it called when a male lion opens his mouth very wide, breathing in a lot of air, tasting and smelling it so he can figure out if the female lions are in heat?" We would appreciate it if you could help us with answering this question. Thanks.