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National Elephant Center
Flehmen Response in Male Asian Elephants
The Oregon Zoo has played a crucial role in the research and discovery of chemical communication in Asian elephants. Understanding elephant communication is essential for establishing successful conservation of these creatures. As natural habitats continue to diminish, understanding the needs of elephants by studying those housed in zoos has become increasingly important.
In 1974, Oregon Zoo researchers understood that elephants used certain types of chemosensory communication, and suspected the use of a flehmen response to test urine. A flehmen response consists of an animal contacting something with its lips or nose and then bringing it into contact with its vomeronasal organ to learn more about it. An animal uses its vomeronasal organ when it smells something stimulating and wants more information. Reproductively stimulating odors represent a handful of the odors received by the vomeronasal organ. Through this process, a male animal can detect where the female is in her estrous cycle, and whether she is ready to breed.
In 1982, Science magazine reported that a flehmen response had been confirmed in Asian elephants at the Oregon Zoo following an eight-year study. The study had been conducted by Dr. Lois “Bets” Rasmussen of the Oregon Graduate Institute along with Dr. Michael Schmidt, Oregon Zoo veterinarian at the time; Roger Henneous, senior elephant keeper; and elephant keeper Douglas Groves. In male Asian elephants, the flehmen response is composed of a few characteristic actions. First, the tip of the trunk detects and then contacts any potentially stimulating moisture. After several sniffs and aspirations, if the odor is sufficiently stimulating, the trunk tip curls upward into the mouth and is inserted into a small recess in the dorsal anterior part of the mouth, where the vomeronasal organ is located. Then the trunk tip presses against the vomeronasal organ and transfers the liquid to it. Research at the zoo showed that the number of flehmen-like responses by the male increased dramatically as the female approached estrous until she went out of heat.
The detection of this response has given zoos more insight into the communication and breeding habits of elephants. Observing the number of flehmen responses is one way zoos can determine whether elephants are ready to breed. This discovery has also been useful in studies on female reproduction and estrous.
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