I don’t know if (and I doubt that) Calvin Klein latest technology-based perfume, Obsession for Men, can live up to the expectations it raises. This musky scent is supposed to attract women, run them wild with its potent aroma. However, wildlife photographers in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala found that it could be used to attract jaguars, cougars and pumas to the camera traps used to get pictures of the endangered cats. Apparently, this does not only attract male jaguars, but females also like the cologne from Calvin Klein.

This was so marked that Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo tried it on snow leopards too. This works! Consequently, the Snow Leopard Trust will try it in South Gobi, Mongolia. Remember that snow leopards are so difficult to find in the wild that apart from GPS collars, it may take months for experts before they can find one in some of the most difficult terrains.

I guess that this will soon lead to a Ig Nobel prize in the future. And some nice new photos, too.

Source: Wildlife Conservation Society – Guatemala Program

• Tiger
• White Tiger
• Lion
• Leopard
• Black panther
• Cheetah
• Puma
• Snow Leopard
• Lynx
• Caracal

• Europe, where the sabre-tooths, lions and leopards are
• Pumas of South Africa, cheetahs of France, jaguars of England

Source: Tretrapod Zoology

The big cats that we know today are but an image of the species appeared then disappeared during the last 60 million years. Of course, I think of the famous saber-toothed tiger of our youngest years, but it is not alone.

“The Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives” of Alan Turner, illustrated by Mauricio Anton, is one of the enthralling books you sometimes find on a shelf. It simply browses through these dead speacies of big cats. I would have liked to find them in a photo safari, for sure:

• Simodon fatalis, whose killing smile probably allowed it to hunt bisons;
• Acinonix inexpectatus, the giant North American cheetah that some would like to re-introduce indirectly under the likes of its current African cousin;
• Homotherium serum, whose slope-backed appearance would remind of current-day hyenas.

A book that is read like a novel and is still a scientific work aimed toward a large reading public willing to know more about the big cats of prehistoric times, their evolution, their links with today’s big cats.