It's advertised as the "pure essence of masculinity", a fragrance with a musky, sensual aroma that, by implication, women are bound to find irresistible. But what's not mentioned in the marketing is that Calvin Klein's Obsession for Men has also proved a hit with jaguars in the Guatemalan jungle.

Scientists are using the cologne to lure the elusive big cats to hidden cameras in the Maya biosphere reserve, a protected tropical rainforest spanning 8,100 sq miles, to help them record, monitor and protect the animals.

The jaguars have been filmed rubbing, sniffing and pawing objects sprayed with the scent, a reaction which perhaps Calvin Klein's perfumers had not anticipated .

The discovery was made by the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx zoo in New York. In an attempt to draw cheetahs to camera traps, it experimented with 23 different scents. Estée Lauder's Beautiful detained the cats for two seconds on average, Revlon's Charlie lasted 15.5 seconds while Nina Ricci's L'Air du Temps managed 10.4 minutes. Obsession for Men's musky scent scored best: 11.1 minutes.

News spread to field researchers, including those in Guatemala. They sprayed it on a rag staked close to heat and motion-sensitive cameras in the hope jaguars would linger long enough for proper images.

The cologne did better than that. It prompted "cheek-rubbing behaviour" which yielded hair and DNA samples. Male and female jaguars seemed equally keen. The project has also captured seldom-seen jaguar mating rituals.

"We're just starting to get an idea of how jaguars behave in their habitat," Roan Balas McNab, WSC's Guatemala programme director, told the Wall Street Journal. "Before we used Obsession for Men we weren't able to get these images at all."

Ann Gottlieb, who helped create the scent, told the paper: "It's a combination of this lickable vanilla heart married to this fresh green top note – it creates tension."

The cologne also had synthetic "animal" notes like civet, a musky substance secreted by the cat of the same name, giving it particular sex appeal. "It sparks curiosity with humans and, apparently, animals."

Adverts for Obsession for Men, one of the world's top 10 best-selling men's scents, tend to feature models wearing little except glistening baby oil.

Researchers plan to expand the use of the cologne to wilderness areas in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. Some buy the £41 bottles at duty-free shops en route to forests, others rely on donations.