How rodents communicate using pheromones

Pheromones are chemical signals which may elicit some response in the targeted animal. They are important when it comes to interspecies communication. The information given to animals by these pheromones includes where they are, the presence of a threat or food, courtship, sexual attraction and the dam-pup interaction. Such chemicals continue to be volatile and intact even when the rodents have been kept in a laboratory.

A powerful message may be delivered through using this scent, and this is a fact that was known long before it was discovered scientifically. Pheromones have been found in almost every type of rodents.

The pheromones are a central part of the lives of the animals, and there are many signals that are perceived by the smell. Most of the time, the pheromones are being detected by the use of the smell. However, not every scent contains pheromones.

Pheromones have evolved into many different signals. How such a smell works had been a mystery up to the time that studies explained them. The odorant molecules work by interacting with the chemosensory receptors and the proteins that are found over the surface membranes for the olfactory sensory neurons that are exposed in the nose to the outside. When the odorant binds to the chemosensory receptor, then it will stimulate the nerve so that it can send the signal to the brain.

There are a large number of chemicals that the animals have learned to use like the pheromones. The variety has been explained in the way that these molecules have been co-opted to be used like pheromones through evolution. The odorant molecules become the signal molecules in many ways. The rodent gains extra sensitivity to these molecules that were used just like the normal cues before. The rodent may also exploit the sensitivity that exists in the receiver already.

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