For Goats – The Smellier, The Better

The very particular smell produced by goats may actually have a reproductive purpose, according to a study published in Current Biology this week. Researchers from the University of Tokyo have shown that this unusual scent derives in part from a pheromone produced by male goats’ head hair. This chemical messenger is capable of switching on the female goat reproductive system. They found that 4-ethyloctanal, a chemical never before seen demonstrated in nature, oxidizes to 4-ethyloctanoic acid, a key ingredient of the unmistakable goat odor. The acid then works with other chemicals to activate the hormone in the female brain that controls the reproductive endocrine system.

In order to gather information about the specific chemicals being released,  the researchers designed a hat that would capture the smell-inducing molecules that are emitted from male goats’ heads. This fetching headpiece was worn by both castrated and uncastrated male goats for a week, after which the molecules were analysed for their individual compounds. The headpiece worn by the uncastrated males contained a number of compounds that were previously undocumented and which were not in the castrated males, including 4-ethyloctanal. When exposed to these chemicals the female goats showed an increase in activity in the neural regulator of reproduction.

While it is possible that some of this behaviour is learnt, the researchers believe it is primarily a biological reaction as all the female goats responded to the stimuli regardless of their mating experience. This research could prove useful for developing more natural, less stressful breeding programs for goats, and the group of researchers is already looking for similar activity in other livestock animals such as sheep and cows.

Read more here: http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(14)00140-7