Animal senses
As in humans, many animals rely on their senses of sight, hearing,
touch, smell and taste to aid survival. Their senses detect information
about changes in their environment, allowing them then to respond quickly.
(See Human Senses A: Sight
and sound and Human Senses
B - Smell, taste and touch for greater detail on these senses.)
For instance, grass-eating animals would not survive long if they could
not hear, smell or see approaching predators!
Animals also use these senses as a basis of communication.
Hearing
Sound signals allow complex communication over long
distances. Some examples are: birds and frogs sing to attract mates
for reproduction, howler monkeys call out to warn the troop of danger
and also to mark their territory, and rabbits forewarn others by thumping
the ground.
Sight
Visual signs can be permanent and continuous (e.g. breeding plumage
of a sexually mature bird), but they are only visible over a short range
and during daylight. Other examples are courtship displays in birds,
dominance displays in gorillas, and facial expressions and body language
in humans and animals, such as dogs.
Touch and vibration
In the dark watery world of the stream bed, a platypus can detect small
prey with touch receptors lining its snout. Social preening in apes,
and human hugs also relay messages through touch. Bees have a complex
vibrating dance language which shows others in the hive the direction
and distance of a food source.
Smell and taste
Many
animals produce chemicals (pheromones) for short-term communication
purposes. They are detected either in the air (smell) or in solution
(taste). Pheromones allow individuals to leave odour trails to food
sources (e.g. ants), drive off predators (skunks), delineate territory
(urine of foxes and dogs and scent glands of deer), or to attract mates
for reproduction (moths). Salmon retrace their migration path by detecting
the "smell print" and salt concentrations of the water in
the river where they hatched.
Other senses used by certain animals include:
Magnetic field
Migratory birds use sight to map geographical features (e.g. mountains)
and celestial markers (moon, stars), but can still navigate on dark
cloudy nights by sensing the direction of the Earth's magnetic field.
A small magnet strapped to a pigeon's back affects its ability to innately
locate "north"!
Infrared heat
Rattlesnakes locate warm-blooded prey (e.g. mice) by heat sensitive
infrared detectors which can detect a 0.005°C rise in temperature
at a distance of 15cm.
Electrical impulses
Electric eels, and certain fishes and rays convey messages by emitting
and detecting electric impulses.
The platypus can sense electrical fields from the nervous system of
certain prey e.g. shrimp.
Echolocation
Bats can both navigate and locate food in total darkness using echolocation.
They emit high frequency ultrasonic sounds (beyond the upper limit of
human hearing) and, from the echo, they can judge distance, size, texture
and shape. The bat brain then processes all this information, forming
a picture of its surroundings, as humans do using sight.
The strange nose shape of the bat enables it to focus the sound like
a flashlight beam and alter its frequency depending on the need. For
example, flying through an open field requires less precise detail than
catching small insects. Tiny muscles in the inner ear disconnect the
hearing apparatus when sounds are emitted to prevent the bats deafening
themselves! To allow them to hear the echoes between emitting noises,
bats' ears may need to be switched on and off 200 times per second!
Dolphins, toothed whales, some seals and even tiny shrews use this same
principle in water, and humans have adapted it as "sonar"
for submarines.
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