The vomeronasal organ of the male ferret

The vomeronasal organ (VNO) is known to play a major role in sexual behavio r in many mammals. This study is the first report that the adult male ferre t has a VNO, which is considerably smaller and morphologically different fr om the usually crescent-shaped epithelium in several mammalian species, par ticularly rodents. There were no differences in the size or structure of th e ferret VNO between the mating season in spring and the sexually quiescent season in autumn, although plasma testosterone, testis size and brain size are dramatically increased in spring and behavior changes significantly. T he histological data suggest that the VNO might be not as important a struc ture in mate ferret sexual behavior as in rodents.