Civetone is a powerful macrocyclic ketone and the primary odoriferous constituent of natural civet. Known for its warm, intensely animalic, and powdery-musky scent, it is a key, long-lasting fixative in high-end perfumery.’
I’ll admit, I stole that word for word from the internet. I did it for two reasons. First, I just think they are two fantastic sentences. I particularly like ‘odoriferous constituent of natural civet.’ Second, civetone is the key to this whole article.
Civetone is an ingredient in perfumes and colognes. I’m willing to bet it comes from a place you aren’t expecting. Traditionally, it was harvested from the anal gland secretions of caged African civets, which are wild-looking small mammals that resemble a mix of raccoons and cats.
The process of getting one’s hands on civetone required the capture of wild African civets, sticking them in cages, and scraping secretions from their perineal glands. If you think that process sounds questionable ethically, many would agree, and due to that, most of the world’s civetone is now produced synthetically in laboratories.
Why am I yammering on about an ingredient in cologne? Because researchers have found that its distinctive odor isn’t just pleasant to people, but jaguars as well. It is theorized that something about the smell of civetone piques the jaguar’s interest because it’s similar to a smell that the jaguars themselves use to mark their territories. The source of civetone that researchers have come to rely upon is Calvin Klein Obsession for Men.
In practice, Obsession for Men is sprayed on an object in front a camera trap. If a jaguar is moving through the area, there’s a chance that the cologne will invite it to stand just a little bit longer than it usually would, directly in front of the camera trap. This allows the trap, or sometimes pair of traps, to record the jaguar’s unique pattern of rosettes, allowing researchers to identify different individuals and get an idea of the size of the local population.
As a guy that loves both camera traps and jaguars, you’d better believe I have a bottle of Obsession for Men amongst the many items in my backpack. I’ve deployed the pungent aroma in front of many a camera trap and, as far as jaguars go, I’ve had some unimpressive results. I can’t recall a single jaguar taking any special interest in whatever item I had soaked in cologne. I’m sure some of that has to do with the amount of time the scent actually lingers on the sprayed item. The wind and beating sun must dissipate the smell quite quickly in windy and hot Guanacaste.
The result that I’ve recorded that I hadn’t expected is that it seems many other creatures also harbor a fondness for civetone. I’ve recorded white-nosed coatis rubbing the smell into their puffy tails. I’ve seen gray foxes take time to investigate the smell and then take a pee on it. I once recorded a coyote spending several minutes rolling around in the scent attempting to transfer it onto every part of its body. Most recently, I sprayed some on a log over a stream and the result was a neotropical river otter investigated the smell and then began using the log as a latrine, apparently feeling the need to add some of its own scent to the log.
I will, of course, continue to use Obsession for Men in my jaguar-focused projects. I haven’t had much luck yet, but I believe what the literature says about its effectiveness. I’ll also continue to use it in places where the focus of the project is to get a general inventory of the species present on the property, because, as you can see in the video below, just about everybody enjoys the ‘warm, intensely animalic, and powdery-musky scent’ of civetone.
About the Author
Vincent Losasso, founder of Guanacaste Wildlife Monitoring, is a biologist who works with camera traps throughout Costa Rica.
