If it comes to kisses, then immediately comes to mind the picture where two lovers romantically kiss each other. However, even in the animal kingdom, this physiological process takes place.
Physiology of a kiss
While kissing on the surfaces of organs such as the lips and tongue, many sensory receptors are activated. They are able to respond to skin surface temperature, touch, as well as taste.
Through cranial nerves, information from receptors enters the brain. There it is processed, after which it enters the part of the brain that is responsible for reactions and emotions.
Interesting fact: The kissing process is an incentive for the production of hormones such as oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin.
Animal kisses
To express affection and affection, many animals touch each other - with their beak or lips. In order to make a full kiss, they need lips that are mobile and soft, and not everyone has them.
Primates are kissing. Proof of this is the work of Frans de Waal, a primatologist at Emory University (USA). He watched more than once as our closest relatives, chimpanzees, kiss and hug their relatives after the conflict.
Speaking of chimpanzees, for them a kiss is a reconciliation, not a romantic gesture. A species of chimpanzee such as bonobo does this more often and even uses language.
Some of the wild animals are not capable of kisses, but they can sniff each other, lick, touch their faces.Even species that have lips do not do this. The thing is that they do not feel such a need.
For example, wild boars emit a smell that attracts females. The pheromone contained in it is andosterone - the male hormone. So why should they kiss? The main tool in the arsenal of animals is secretion, not kisses.
People during kisses catch each other's pheromones. In animals, since they have a more developed sense of smell, there is no need to come so close, so that the whole meaning of kisses, from this point of view, disappears.
Interesting fact: a black widow male clearly catches pheromones secreted by females and can even understand if a female is hungry or not. A well-fed female will not eat a male.
