Chemical communication is all about taste and smell. Plants use scent and pheromones to attract pollinators. Animals use scents and tastes for a whole variety of reasons, including scents emitted by female moths to attract a mate, alarm signals given off by bees when their hive is under threat and the territorial markers in wolf urine. Some insects, such as ants, lay down pheromone trails for their nest-mates to follow to food sources. Many animals have special scent glands for leaving these chemical messages.
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Australia's camels
Australia is now the only country where one-humped camels live naturally in the wild.
Australia's mulga country, or bush, is a dense woodland of acacias, ghost gums and bloodwoods, all rooted in the outwash of the Central Ranges. Most woody shrubs are thirsty and demanding but these tough plants have flourished despite the dry soil and some unwelcome invaders. In the 1880s, camel trains were the only way to cross the desert. But once roads were built, the camels were abandoned and are now feral. With no natural predators they have thrived here and Australia is now the only country where one-humped camels live in the wild. In the breeding season males do their best to mate with as many females as they can. They do this by frothing at the mouth and inflating their dewlaa - a sac on the roof of their mouth. It looks grotesque, but it is obviously attractive to the females and intimidates other males. When two bulls fight, it can get very serious as they use their necks to try wrestle each other to the ground. Over half a million camels now roam the Central Ranges and they are now considered serious pests.
Kinkajou night stalkers
Kinkajous are perfectly designed for life in the trees at night.
Kinkajous are perfectly adapted for life in the trees at night, only coming out in the dark when there is little competition for food. Large eyes help them see at night but their most important sense is smell, which they use to navigate at night. Kinkajous mark their trails through the trees using scent glands on their face and stomach to leave a smelly map of their routes. They are also very flexible and a prehensile tail allows them to bend and stretch to find the very best food during their nocturnal foraging trips.
Tree climber
Giant anteaters have never been filmed climbing trees until now.
Giant anteaters have never been filmed climbing trees until now.
Moth trap
The bolas spider uses scent and sticky trick to catch moths.
The bolas spider can attract male moths by mimicking the scent of a female. It uses a blob of glue dangling by a thread to catch them when they come close. The spiders bolas is named after an old hunting weapon still used in South America. Gauchos throw these weighted ropes around the legs of cattle to bring them down. The spider's version is sticky and is cued by the beating of wings. The thread is stronger than steel and few moths escape.
Mating snakes
Grass snakes come out of hibernation with one thing on their mind.
Grass snakes come out of hibernation with one thing on their mind.
Malayan colugo
Long-eared hedgehog
Crest-tailed mulgara
Elephant shrews
Grey-faced sengi
Pangolins
Brown-throated sloth
Giant anteater
Pygmy three-toed sloth
Three-toed sloths
Southern three-banded armadillo
Common vampire bat
Horseshoe bats
Mexican free-tailed bat
African wild dog
American mink
Asian golden cat
Badger
Brown bear
Cats
Clouded leopard
Coyote
Ethiopian wolf
Eurasian lynx
Fossa
Giant river otter
Giant-striped mongoose
Grey wolf
Leopard
Leopard cat
Lion
Maned wolf
Meerkat
North American river otter
Otter
Pine marten
Polar bear
Polecat
Puma
Red fox
Red panda
Serval
Snow leopard
South American coati
South American grey fox
Southern sea lion
Spectacled bear
Spotted hyena
Stoat
Striped Skunk
Tibetan fox
Tiger
Weasel
White-nosed coati
Wildcat
Wolverine
African buffalo
Argali sheep
Blackbuck
Cattle and aurochs
Dall sheep
Giraffe
Grant's gazelle
Guanaco
Hippopotamus
Irish elk
Markhor
Mongolian gazelle
Muntjac deer
Musk ox
Nubian ibex
Pronghorn antelope
Red deer
Reindeer
Saiga
Sika deer
Springbok
Thomson's gazelle
Topi
Warthog
Water buffalo
Mountain hare
Plateau pika
Black-footed rock-wallaby
Brush-tailed rock wallaby
Doria's Tree-Kangaroo
Eastern grey kangaroo
Koala
Matschie's tree-kangaroo
Red kangaroo
Horses, donkeys and zebras
Indian rhinoceros
Wild horse
Woolly rhinoceros
Aye-aye
Barbary macaque
Chimpanzee
Common woolly monkey
Crowned lemur
Fork-marked lemurs
François' langur
Gelada baboon
Golden langur
Golden snub-nosed monkey
Indri
Lac Alaotra gentle lemur
Lemurs
Macaques
Olive baboon
Patas monkey
Pied tamarin
Red ruffed lemur
Ring-tailed lemur
Silky sifaka
Slow lorises
Tarsiers
Toque macaque
True lemurs
Tufted capuchin
Verreaux's sifaka
Western gorilla
Yunnan snub-nosed monkey
African bush elephant
Asian elephant
Forest elephant
Arctic ground squirrel
Bank vole
Beavers
Brants's whistling rat
Brown rat
Capybara
Damaraland mole rat
Dormice
Dormouse
Edible dormouse
European beaver
European water vole
Field vole
Harvest mouse
Himalayan marmot
Lemmings
Naked mole rat
North American beaver
Wood mouse
Mole
Amazon river dolphin
African penguin
Bewick's swan
Spectacled eider
Spix's macaw
Bullfinch
Rockfowl
Waxwing
Guillemots
Skimmers
Thick-billed guillemot
Fulmar
Shearwaters
American crocodile
Spectacled caiman
Adder
African rock python
Boa constrictor
Eyelash viper
Fer-de-lance
Indian rock python
King cobra
Komodo dragon
Monocled cobra
Pythons
Slow worm
Tibetan spring snake
Water monitor
Yellow anaconda
Galápagos giant tortoise
Gopher tortoise
Army ant
Black garden ant
Buff-tailed bumblebee
Bumblebees
Common wasp
European honey bee
Hairy wood ant
Lasius ants
Leaf-cutter ants
Saharan silver ant
Scottish wood ant
Yellow meadow ant
Gatekeeper butterfly
Large blue butterfly
Painted lady
Cockroaches
Desert locustA semiochemical (semeon means a signal in Greek) is a generic term used for a chemical substance or mixture that carries a message. These chemicals acts as messengers within or between species. It is usually used in the field of chemical ecology to encompass pheromones, allomones, kairomones, attractants and repellents.
Probably all insects use semiochemicals; natural chemicals released by an organism that affect the behaviors of other individuals. Pheromones are intraspecific signals that aid in finding mates, food and habitat resources, warning of enemies, and avoiding competition. Interspecific signals known as allomones and kairomones have similar functions. The goals of using semiochemicals in pest management are
Pheromone
A pheromone (from Greek phero "to bear" + hormone from Greek - "impetus") is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting outside the body of the secreting individual to impact the behavior of the receiving individual. There are alarm pheromones, food trail pheromones, sex pheromones, and many others that affect behavior or physiology. Their use among insects has been particularly well documented. In addition, some vertebrates and plants communicate by using pheromones.
The term "pheromone" was introduced by Peter Karlson and Martin Lüscher in 1959, based on the Greek word pherein (to transport) and hormone (to stimulate). They are also sometimes classified as ecto-hormones. German Biochemist Adolf Butenandt characterized the first such chemical, Bombykol (a chemically well-characterized pheromone released by the female silkworm to attract mates).
Allomone
An allomone is any chemical substance produced and released by an individual of one species that affects the behaviour of a member of another species to the benefit of the originator but not the receiver. Production of allomones is a common form of defence, such as by plant species against insect herbivores or prey species against predators. Sometimes species produce the sex pheromones of the organisms they exploit as prey or pollinators (such as bolas spiders and some orchids ). "Allomone" was proposed by Brown, Eisner, and Whittaker to denote those substances which convey an advantage upon the emitter.
Kairomone
A kairomone is a semiochemical, emitted by an organism, which mediates interspecific interactions in a way that benefits an individual of another species which receives it, without benefitting the emitter. Two main ecological cues are provided by kairomones; they generally either indicate a food source for the receiver, or give warning of the presence of a predator. Often a pheromone may be utilized as a kairomone by a predator or parasitoid to locate the emitting organism
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Other Communication and senses behaviours
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