Amazing Animal Senses

Amazing Animal Senses

Have you ever wondered why some animals have some really crazy looking sense organs? Why do snakes have a two part tongue? Why do elephants have such huge ears? Why do some bats have different looking ears and noses? Why do moths have antennae that look like feathers? Every feature on a wild animal has a special purpose to help it survive. Just like us, animals rely on their senses to communicate with each other, to find their way around, to find food and to stay safe. The shape, presence, absence, location and size of an animal’s sense organs is for a reason, no matter how unusual they appear to be.Worms have very poor eyesight but have taste buds all over their body to help them find food underground.

Owls - have huge round eyes to see better in the dark.
Possums - have very long whiskers to help them find their way around the trees at night.
Moths - males can smell girl moths a very long way away using their antennae, yet they don’t have a nose.

Animals without eyes or with really poor eyesight usually live where its too dark to see anyway, e.g. burrowing animals, cave dwellers, deep sea fish.
Butterflies are one of the only insects that can see red, but insects can see a colour that we can’t. It’s called ultra violet.
A bird’s most important sense is its sense of sight, then hearing.
Parrots and rabbits can see behind themselves without turning their heads
Owls cannot move their eyeballs but can turn their head around 270 degrees.
Owls can see three times better than we can in the dark.
Hawks can see four times further away than we can.
Falcons can see a ten centimetre object from a distance of 1.5 kilometres.
Giant squid have eyes the size of a dinner plate.

Eye comparisons  
spiders (up to eight)
dragonflies (30 000 lenses)
flies (3000 lenses)
scorpions (12)
scallops (100)
leeches (ten)

Smell
Insects don’t have noses! They have antennae instead.
An insect’s most important sense is its sense of smell.
Some animals don’t use their nose to smell, they use their tongue instead, eg. snakes and lizards.
Some animals can hardly smell at all (birds, frogs) but they have other senses to make up for it (good eyesight).
Cats can smell three times better than we can. Dogs can smell 40 times better.
Pigs can smell very well and can find food under the ground.
Possums wee and poo around their territory so when other possums smell it they know to stay away.

Some animals have taste buds in very unusual places:
Snakes - inside their mouth but not on their tongue
Flies and butterflies - on their feet
Worms - all over their body!
Spiders - the little hairs all around their mouth
Bees - antennae, front legs and their jaws.

Taste bud comparisons:
Humans (10 000)
Catfish (100 000)
Pigs (15 000)
Rabbits (17 000)

Hearing
Not all animals have ears and some have ears that are very different to us, eg. snakes have no ears, frogs only have an ear drum.
Some animals have ears in very unusual places, eg. Crickets have ears on their knees, some butterflies and moths have ears on their wings and cicadas have ears on their tummy.
Insects do not have a voice. Crickets and grasshoppers rub their legs to make sound; mosquitoes, bees and flies flap their wings really fast to buzz.
Dogs can hear when a thunderstorm is coming long before we can.
Kangaroos can turn their ears around in all directions so they can tell where a sound is coming from.
Frogs have an ear drum but no ‘sticky outy’ ear parts.

Hearing comparisons: 
Pigeons can hear sounds 200 times lower than we can
Mice can’t hear as low but they can hear much higher sounds than we can
Elephants can hear sounds five kilometres away
Grasshoppers can hear sounds 2 ½ times higher than we can.

Touch
We use our skin to touch but many animals use whiskers, antennae, hairs, or feathers instead.
Tawny Frogmouth birds have tiny feathers that look  like hairs and act like whiskers to feel for flying insects at night.
Possums have very long whiskers so they don’t bump into things at night.

Ants will tap on the ground to warn others of danger or to let other ants know when they have discovered food.
Ants can detect movement through five centimetres of earth.
Snakes use their tongue to touch things as they move along because their eyesight is not very good.
Snails pull their eyes into their head if something touches them.

• Kookaburras laugh to tell other kookaburras not to come near them.  
• Birds sing pretty songs to find a boyfriend or girlfriend 
• Magpies shriek to warn of danger 
• Dogs growl to say go away 
• Crickets chirp to find a partner 
• Lizards hiss when they are frightened to warn others not to touch them 
• Male frogs croak to attract girl frogs 
• Wallabies thump their feet on the ground to warn others of danger 
• Dingoes howl when they are excited