The aggressive sexual activity of Asian elephants could be a key to understanding the human sixth sense, according to new research to be published this week in the international science journal Nature. The study, conducted by New Zealander Dave Greenwood and Elizabeth Rasmussen of the Oregon Heath and Sciences University, focussed on the ways animals signal to each other.Male Asian elephants are famed for their annual bouts of heightened sexual activity and aggression, called “musth”, during which they produce a notoriously pungent cocktail of chemicals to advertise their mating status, the researchers said Friday.The jury is out on whether humans have the ability to communicate using pheromones but the research into elephants is considered a significant step forward in the understanding of this signalling in mammals.The researchers found that more mature males impress females by including a balance of different versions of a particular pheromone called frontalin, which exists in two molecular “mirror-image” forms.
