Researchers have found a new way to attract big jungle cats, such as jaguars and pumas, by using men's cologne -- Calvin Klein Obsession for Men to be exact.

The new technique comes after Pat Thomas, general curator of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo, applied a variety of perfumes and colognes to trees and rocks in zoo exhibits featuring tigers, snow leopards and cheetahs in hopes of drawing interest from the animals.

"It's just something that's been known in the zoo community for many, many years that different scents have attracted cats in particular," Thomas said in an interview.

"I started a study to look at exactly how much time our cats would spend with a particular scent. I then noticed that certain scents elicited things such as cheek rubbing behavior," he said.

Thomas said the zoo could use various behavioral responses to their advantage. For instance, with the cheek rubbing behavior, the researchers could put the scent on hair-trapping devices to gather hair follicles and study DNA patterns, he said.

"What started out as sort of a way to stimulate animals ... we found a way to benefit animals in zoos and nature," Thomas said.

WCS field conservationists are now using the scent to attract cats, especially jaguars, in front of remote cameras located in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, one of the largest protected areas in Central America.

This remote camera technique is one way that conservationists can monitor populations by collecting evidence that animals are in a given area and know how many individuals are in the area, Thomas said.

"Jaguars are highly elusive creatures, and for years, WCS researchers struggled to develop more effective methods for estimating how many jaguars were in the forest, hidden amongst the ancient Maya temples," said Roan McNab, WCS Guatemala Country director, in a statement.

"Now, due to the fact that jaguars love Obsession for Men, WCS field conservationists are getting more precise estimates of jaguar populations," McNab said.

Because perfume and cologne makers are guarded with their formulas, it's hard to say why the cats are attracted to Calvin Klein Obsession for Men, Thomas said, adding they "just used as many perfumes and colognes that we could get our hands on" for the study.

By Samantha Cossick