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Laughing tiger INDIA COMICAL images of a Royal Bengal tiger grinning like a Cheshire cat were captured in Panna Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, India. But the tiger was, in fact, exhibiting a flehmen response, which involves some animals curling back their lips, opening their mouths, and often raising their heads after sniffing a particular scent. This behaviour is used to transfer pheromones and other scents into the vomeronasal organ (VNO), also known as Jacobson’s organ. The VNO is located above the roof of the mouth and connected to the nasal cavity. Tigers use the flehmen response when investigating different scents left by other tigers. It’s like smelling in high definition. These images were captured by Sudhir Shivaram, an Indian wildlife photographer from Bangalore, India. “I always wanted to capture the flehmen response of a tiger as it's a unique behavioural aspect and was quite happy to have got it,” he told mediadrumworld.com. “We were tracking this specific tiger for quite some time and it finally came out in the open. “We were placed right in front of him in the open area giving a complete view of the landscape with not much obstructions. “These images capture the candid moment and also show a behavioural aspect of the tiger, which is important to capture from both a scientific aspect and from a natural history moment.” ENDs