NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Female cheetahs at the Bronx Zoo in New York just love Calvin Klein's Obsession for Men perfume.
No, they don't dab their favorite perfume behind their ears, but they do enjoy rubbing up against tree stumps sprayed with the scent.
"We want to enrich the daily lives of the animals, both physically and psychologically," Diana Reiss, senior research scientist at the Conservation Society and co-chairman of its Wildlife Enrichment Program, told Reuters.
"One of the ways we do that is offering our animals different kinds of scents to give them variety, " she said
The scents provide a way to stimulate the animals. Under the Wildlife Enrichment Program, the animals also get to play with interactive toys and puzzles, learning to manipulate boxes to find a hidden toy or food treat. Research has shown that animals would rather work for their food than just be given it, Reiss said.
"With our cheetahs at the Bronx Zoo, we worked from inexpensive perfumes to expensive perfumes," she said. "The one they respond to the most is Calvin Klein Obsession for Men. But they also respond to inexpensive perfumes."
