RE Fun Fact Friday #119 Wolves, and by extension other canines, in Resonant Evolution produce pheromones that can be used to communicate and identity, or grease the wheels of certain interactions and amplify certain emotions. These pheromones are produced similarly to their feral counterparts, in scent glands all over the body. However being anthros, the Eckzahn have created supplements and treatments to amplify naturally produced pheromones, and fix or alter produced pheromones. Pheromones are produced in glands in the face, skin, genitals, and tail. Both sexes produce different types of pheromones, and both are much more sensitive to the opposite sex’s pheromones. These pheromones influence the brain of others, not only the obvious sexual influences, but also the emotional. Wolves produce certain pheromones when in certain moods, particularly strong ones. They can smell when someone is angry, sad, or gleeful. This is amplified if it is a familiar scent, scents of loved ones and close friends are remembered. They are much easier to recognize and have more impact on brain chemistry. For the same reason foreign scents of people they do not know can create alarm, or curiosity, depending on the situation. Wolf noses are very sensitive, they can pick up on subtle and far away smells, as well as naturally produced pheromones. These pheromones create a unique signature for every person, their own unique scent that can be recognized by the people they know. This is the most important part of the pheromones. A person’s unique combination of pheromones is part of their identity. Making your scent “visible” is just as important as dressing well or grooming your fur. To many non-canine species, these scents can be pungent, but to wolves they don't “stink”. Other species have similar pheromones and scents and so they can understand and recognize each other based on them. To humans this “smell” would not be as bad, given their lesser sense of smell, but would still be able to tell close up. Nonetheless, wolves do bathe and clean themselves, their natural scent is not associated with dirtiness. Because you need to have your own unique scent, things like perfumes and cologne are not a thing. They would only hide your natural scent. Instead, formulas of enzymes called “enhancers” are popular to artificially boost pheromone production. Instead of overriding your natural scent these enhancers overstimulate your scent glands to produce larger amounts of pheromones. It is applied in small amounts directly to scent glands. Not everyone uses them, and not all the time. It is used more for special occasions, or to impress/influence someone. Biology is never perfect, and there are many things that can go wrong, especially with something so intricate as pheromones and genetics. There are many disorders that could cause someone to produce the wrong pheromones either the opposite sex’s or a mixture of them, abnormal amounts of them, unable to smell them or be affected by them, or be too affected by them. To fix many of these, injections exist to right them. Usually done with stampers they are injected every few months or whenever the effects subside. They are usually not permanent, but are a much cheaper option to genetic treatments that may or may not fix the underlying issue.