Stiff Upper Lips
by Donna Kennedy
Title
Stiff Upper Lips
Artist
Donna Kennedy
Medium
Photograph - Photographs
Description
Original Fine Art Photography by Donna Kennedy…
Texture added for an artistic enhancement-edited in Topaz Studio
A young pair of Zebras photographed at Out of Africa Wildlife Park in Camp Verde, Arizona
Most of us, at one time or another, have seen a horse tilt up his head and curl his upper lip in a "horse laugh." Although the expression is amusing, it actually has a practical purpose. The posture is called "flehmen" (roughly translated it means "testing"), and it appears to help horses trap pheromone scents in the vomeronasal organs (VNOs) so they can be analyzed more closely. Pheromones are the chemical signals emanating from other horses (and on occasion from humans).
After a horse draws in the organic odor (by several seconds of olfactory investigation), he curls up his lip to temporarily close the nasal passages and hold the particles inside. Then an upward head tilt seems to help the airborne molecules linger in the VNOs, which are located under the floor of the horse's nasal cavity.
Stallions are, by far, the most enthusiastic equine practitioners of the flehmen posture. In the presence of a mare in estrus, for example, they might flehmen several times an hour. Mares also will flehmen, although not as frequently; the smell of birthing fluids on a newborn foal triggers the response.
Geldings seem to flehmen the least. In fact, it's theorized that the process of gelding seems to compromise a male's ability to detect and analyze pheromones, making him sexually ineffectual in more ways than one.
But while sex pheromones are definitely the most likely flehmen trigger, they're not the only ones. Occasionally, horses will react with an upper lip curl when they come in contact with an unusually strange or pungent inorganic odor--smoke from a fire or fresh paint, for example.
Thank You to the Administrators that Featured this photo in the following Groups:
-Animal Photographs
-The Artistic Aperture
-Your Story of Art
-Just Perfect
-Topaz Simplify-Glow-Impression Photo Renderings
-USA Photographers ONLY
-Wisconsin Flowers and Scenery
-KINGDOM Animalia
-Animal Mania
-Images That Excite You
-Lady Photographers and Artists
-Nature Landmarks Landscapes Wildlife
-Fuzzy Warm and Soft
-Wildlife One A Day
-Our 4-Legged Friends
-500 Views
Uploaded
November 18th, 2018
Statistics
Viewed 830 Times - Last Visitor from Beverly Hills, CA on 03/28/2024 at 4:55 PM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet