Quote - @Shane
I wasn't trolling!

  Ok, fair enough. Sometimes it's difficult to tell with you. 

Quote -  And anyway, while I suppose there is truth in that pheromone stuff, I think it must have a lot less impact than they think it does (on humans anyway).  We don't need to be near a woman to be excited by one, so the pheromone thing wouldn't count there.  But what I meant was I was curious why certain species are attracted tocertain things.

An easier way to put it might be this: Why are we, as humans, attracted to breasts but not fingers?
Why legs but not ears?

And that's what I mean; on another species it's even more weird because in some cases they all look the same, but I suppose then, like you said, that pheromone thing must have something to do with it.  It's actually a very interesting question because anyone who could nail what it is that lies at the heart of what we find attractive about women, would be able to create the most incredible figures.

They all look the same to you because you're human. But within that particular species, the differences are abundantly clear. I doubt a dog, or a horse, or most any other animal, really sees much difference between us humans. To them we all pretty much look the same too and they rely more on scent to distinguish us from each other. But since I've never had an actual conversation with my dog I can't say for sure. If she ever decides to answer my question then I will update this.

Many animal species also have specific physical characteristics they use to attract a mate. A common example of this would be a peacock's plume. To a human it just looks like a bunch of exotically colored feathers and you probably won't notice a difference between 10 of them if you looked, but to a female peacock it's a huge turn-on and she can see the differences. It's also a dominance trait. Male peacocks strut their tails to show that they're the alpha male, the best one that female could choose to mate with (at least in his mind), to attract a female mate.

At least this is the theory. Some people debate it, but similar behaviors can be observed in many other species, including primates. 

What is interesting, to me anyway, is that it's often the male (of any species, not just peacocks) that is brightly colored or displays some exagerated feature, while the female is rather bland and indistinguishable from each other. But males have to compete for mating, while females can choose, so the female really doesn't need to look her best. 

Keep in mind I'm not a scientist, and all of this is just based on information I've gleaned over the years from watching animal planet and discovery, nato geo, reading, etc. 

 

Some humans actually are attracted to fingers, and ears, and every other part of the body that you might not give a second thought to. (For me personally, I like hands). These are learned behaviors, so they are different for everyone. I'm sure you've heard of foot fetishes, etc. So someone who is attracted to feet may not give 2 s**ts about the size of breasts, or if they're even there to begin with. It's much more complicated in humans because our brains are much more complicated and no two people respond exactly the same way to the same stimuli. I do know pheromones play an important role in it, science can prove that. Brain responses to these pheromones can be monitored and recorded. 

 

*ETA: Cross-posted with Clark. But I also wanted to add: I used to raise sugar gliders (google it if you don't know what it is). They're extremely scent-oriented little creatures, and in order for you to bond with one, it's essential that you have to place a piece of clothing with your scent on it in their sleeping pouch in order for them to get used to you and feel comfortable in your presence. If it's young enough, you can keep it in your pocket while it sleeps and it will associate you with it's mother (regardless of what gender you are because to a sugar glider it doesn't matter). Without that scent bonding, which can take a while, you'll never befriend a glider. 

Anyway, I had a new female once that I was trying to socialize with another colony and she would have nothing to do with any of them even when they were all friendly towards her. I couldn't figure it out so I had to keep her separate (which is very detrimental to a glider). Then I got a male that was colored very similar to her, and she took to him right away. All the others were standard gray and black, while she (and her later mate) was much lighter gray with a bright white face. She recognized him as being like her, while she didn't recognize the others as being like her, even tho they're the same species. 

 

~Shane