What pheromones are used to attract mates during the heat cycle?

Sex pheromones are specific chemicals released by an individual to attract potential mates during their heat cycle or mating season. These pheromones play a critical role in communication between animals, signaling readiness to breed and ensuring that mating partners can locate one another effectively. In many species, females release these pheromones in order to indicate they are in estrus, making them more appealing to males of the same species who are drawn to the scent as a sign of fertility.

The other pheromone types serve different purposes: epideictic pheromones act as a way to prevent overcrowding by marking territory or resources, alarm pheromones signal danger to alarm others in the vicinity, and territorial pheromones mark an area to communicate ownership. While all these pheromones contribute to the survival and social structure of animal populations, they do not function in the context of mate attraction during mating cycles like sex pheromones do.