In captivity, the “love drug” oxytocin has been discovered to have a good effect on large cat bonding. When exposed to other lions, lions and their giant murder mitts can get violent, but a spritz of oxytocin up the nostril made these beasts’ meet-cutes a little less deadly. Animal biologist Craig Packer and neurologist Sarah Heilbronner of the University of Minnesota discovered the unique treatment for non-lethal lion fast dating, which they reported in iScience.
When it comes to squirting something up a lion’s nose, they’re not the easiest patients, but the two, working with a team at the Dinokeng Wildlife Reserve in South Africa, were able to use the lions’ bloodlust to good use. They used a huge piece of meat to entice them to a fence where they could safely get close enough to spray oxytocin into their nostrils. Although it was a difficult effort, the nasal insertion served a purpose other than raising the researchers’ heart rates.
“We know it can travel up the trigeminal nerve and the olfactory nerve straight up into the brain by spraying oxytocin right up the nose,” first author Jessica Burkhart said in a statement. “Otherwise, it might be filtered out by the blood-brain barrier.” The lions who received the medication (a total of 23) immediately began to calm down and became more tolerant of and less hostile toward their fellow lions.
“You can see their features relax immediately,” Burkhart said in a statement. “They go from wrinkled and combative to this very serene posture.” “They’re completely relaxed. It’s incredible.” The researchers then gave them a favorite pumpkin toy to play with in order to test the drug’s effects and gauge their tolerance. Even with the pumpkin as a lure, vigilant lions kept a distance of roughly 7 meters (23 feet), but oxytocin lions went within 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) of one another.
Even on oxytocin, lions were impatient of visitors going too close to their meat, so tolerance vanished in the presence of food. Human encroachment on lion territories frequently results in animals being transported to fenced-in reserves, thus finding techniques to enhance relations among lions living in close quarters has benefits beyond confined circumstances. While the reserves keep the animals secure, they do so at the expense of putting them in close proximity to other lions, which is not ideal for these aloof cats.
“Right now, we’re working on introducing animals to sanctuaries that have been rescued from circuses, overseas, or war zones,” Burkhart added. “The goal is that this will translate to animals being released into the wild, allowing them to become more accustomed to their new social situation, allowing them to bond more successfully.”
