'Axe Effect' Does It Really Work ?

Just like those body-spray commercials wherein young men attract hordes of beautiful women by dousing themselves with fragrance, male songbirds draw attention to themselves through their own special chemical communication, a new study has shown.

Scents are used in all organisms for many purposes, such as finding, attracting and evaluating mates. But this is the first study of its kind that demonstrates that it is happening among songbirds, said Danielle Whittaker, managing director of MSU's BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action.

Male birds apparently release their cologne or preen oil secreted from a gland at the base of their tail. It not only works to attract the attention of female birds, but it also has the unintended effect of attracting males as well.

It's kind of like the Axe effect,' in that females were attracted to the scent and didn't seem to care where it came from, meaning their own population or a different one even though birds in these populations look and behave differently, Whittaker said.

And I think the males were drawn in as an aggressive response to the scent of another male, he added.

The study has been published in the journal Behavioral Ecology.

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