Turns out Big Cats are obsessed with Obsession, Calvin Klein's Obsession for Men-zoos and scientists now know that big cats like tigers, jaguars and cheetahs are drawn to the cologne, allowing photographing in the wild and cat research.
Sasha, a Siberian tiger at the Bronx Zoo dines on beef and rabbit. But to really get the Siberian tiger moving, zookeepers depend on Calvin Klein's Obsession for Men cologne.
When biologists began spraying Obsession for Men cologne near heat-and-motion-sensitive cameras in the Bronx Zoo, the jaguars got curious. Zoos have been know to spray perfumes and colognes on rocks, trees and even the animals' toys in order to keep confined zoo animals curious.
In 2003, Pat Thomas, general curator for the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo in New York, performed an experiment with 24 fragrances and two cheetahs. Thomas kept track of how long it took the big cats to notice the sprayed scent and how much time they spent interacting with the perfume or cologne. Those scents like Estée Lauder's Beautiful kept the cheetahs interested on average for just two seconds. Revlon's Charlie got 15.5 seconds of the cats' time. The cheetahs enjoyed Nina Ricci's L'Air du Temps as long as 10.4 minutes. Obsession for Men received a whopping 11.1 minutes of the cats' time, longer than the cheetahs usually take to eat.
Sasha the Siberian Tiger, at the Bronx Zoo, is known to cuddle a tree sprayed with Obsession for Men. Now Obsession for Men is widely used in zoos and out in the field, where it has helped produce breakthroughs in wildlife biology and conservation.
It's not just cheetahs obsessed with Calvin Klein's Obsession-all Big Cats are enjoying the cologne's scent. Roan Balas McNab, a Wildlife Conservation Society program director in Guatemala, has been using Obsession for Men since 2007 to help study jaguars in the Maya Biosphere Reserve.
Rony Garcia of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Guatemala program applies Obsession for Men as a lure to draw jaguars for photographic images. Balas McNab is trying to determine the size of the jaguar population, but jaguars are reclusive and it's hard in the jungle to get a head count. In his 14 years on the reserve, McNab says he has had only one random spotting of a jaguar. After hearing about Thomas' fragrance and scent tests, McNab's field biologists began spraying Obsession for Men cologne near their cameras-squirting cologne onto a rag tied to a stake. Scientists say jaguars can detect smells from up to a kilometer away-and they came to the scent, with three times as many of the big cats passing cameras than those without the cologne. Camera footage showed curious jaguar cats approaching the scented rag, sniffing, and lingering-allowing researchers the opportunity for clear, full camera shots of the jaguars.
Beyond mere counting, the jaguar survey project has begun to capture rarely seen jaguar mating rituals, even the days-long pursuit of a potential partner. "We're just starting to get an idea of how jaguars behave in their habitat,"McNab says. "Before we used Obsession for Men we weren't able to get these images at all."
Obsession for Men cologne launched in 1986, with Calvin Klein's brand push toward sexual overtones in advertising. Obsession for Men is still ranked among the Top 10 best-selling men's fragrances across the world. The Obsession cologne, under license by Coty Inc., posted sales of about $85.5 million last year.
The Wildlife Conservation Society says it has shared its research results with Coty. Coty's not commenting. Perhaps it's too "animalistic" of an image for the brand.
Ann Gottlieb, who helped create Obsession for Men, says there are factors in the fragrance that wild animals might find irresistible. "It's a combination of this lickable vanilla heart married to this fresh green top note—it creates tension," she says. The cologne also has synthetic "animal" notes like civet, a musky substance secreted by the cat of the same name, giving it particular sex appeal, the cologne's creator says.