Flehmen response

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Flehmen response

The flehmen response, , also called the flehmen position, flehmen reaction, flehming, or flehmening (from German flehmen, meaning to curl the upper lip), is a particular type of curling of the upper lip in ungulate

Ungulate

Ungulates are several groups of mammals, most of which use the tips of their toes, usually hoofed, to sustain their whole body weight while moving....
s, felids, and many other mammal

Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s, which facilitates the transfer of pheromone

Pheromone

A pheromone is a chemical that triggers a natural behavioral response in another member of the opposite gender of the same species. There are alarm signal pheromones, food trail pheromones, sex pheromones, and many others that affect behavior or physiology....
s and other scents into the vomeronasal organ

Vomeronasal organ

The vomeronasal organ , or Jacobson's organ, is an auxiliary olfactory sense organ that is found in many animals. It was discovered by Ludvig Jacobson in 1813....
, also called the Jacobson's Organ.

he flehmen response, animals draw back their lips in a manner that makes them appear to be "grimacing".

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Encyclopedia

Ungulate

Ungulates are several groups of mammals, most of which use the tips of their toes, usually hoofed, to sustain their whole body weight while moving....
s, felids, and many other mammal

Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s, which facilitates the transfer of pheromone

Pheromone

Vomeronasal organ

Exhibition

In the flehmen response, animals draw back their lips in a manner that makes them appear to be "grimacing". The action, which is adopted when examining scents left by other animals either of the same species or of prey, helps expose the vomeronasal organ and draws scent molecules back toward it. This behavior allows animals to detect scents, for example from urine, of other members of their species or clues to the presence of prey. Flehming allows the animals to determine several factors, including the presence or absence of estrus, the physiological state of the animal, and how long ago the animal passed by. This particular response is recognizable, for example, in stallion

Stallion (horse)

A stallion is a male horse that has not been castration, or gelding.Stallions will follow the horse conformation and phenotype of their list of horse breeds, but within that standard, the presence of hormones such as testosterone may give stallions a thicker, "cresty" neck as well as a somewhat more muscular physique as compared to female...
s when smelling the urine of a mare in heat.

Physiology

The vomeronasal organ

Vomeronasal organ

The vomeronasal organ , or Jacobson's organ, is an auxiliary olfactory sense organ that is found in many animals. It was discovered by Ludvig Jacobson in 1813....
, also called Jacobson's organ, is a chemoreceptor organ thought to have to do with the perception of certain scents and pheromones. It is named for its closeness to the vomer and nasal bones, and is particularly developed in animals such as cat

Cat

The cat , also known as the Domestication cat or house cat to distinguish it from other Felinae and Felidae, is a small predationy carnivore species of crepuscular mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and its ability to hunt vermin, snakes, scorpions, and other unwanted household pests....
s and horse

Horse

The horse is a hoofed mammal, a subspecies of one of seven extant species of the family Equidae. The horse has evolution of the horse over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, odd-toed ungulate animal of today....
s. The organ is located on the roof of the mouth. In addition to house cats and horses, animals who exhibit the flehmen reaction include buffalo

American Bison

The American Bison is a bovinae mammal, also commonly known as the American buffalo. "Buffalo" is somewhat of a misnomer for this animal, as it is only distantly related to either of the two "true buffaloes", the Wild Asian Water Buffalo and the African buffalo....
, domestic cats, tiger

Tiger

The tiger is a member of the Felidae family; the largest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera. Native to much of eastern and southern Asia, the tiger is an apex predator and an Carnivore#Obligate carnivores....
s, tapir

Tapir

Tapirs are large Herbivory mammals, roughly pig-like in shape, with short, prehensile snouts. They inhabit jungle and forest regions of South America, Central America, and Southeast Asia....
s, lion

Lion

The lion is a member of the family Felidae and one of four big cats in the genus Panthera. With exceptionally large males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger....
s, giraffe

Giraffe

The giraffe is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant. It is covered in large, irregular patches of yellow to black fur separated by white, off-white, or dark yellowish brown background....
s, goat

Goat

The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep: both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae....
s, and llama

Llama

The llama is a South American camelid, widely used as a pack animal by the Incas and other natives of the Andes mountains. In South America llamas are still used as beasts of burden, as well as for the production of fiber and meat....
s.

Similar responses

A grimace similar to the flehmen response may also be seen in association with pain. In horses it is often associated with low grade abdominal pain.