Welcome to the world of amazing animal senses.
Senses are the way animals get information about the world around them.
It's how they know where they are and where they're going.
Henry, open your eyes!
Henry, you've got to use your senses.
Excuse me, I sure felt that.
Knock any sense into you, Henry?
And speaking of senses, what's that smell?
The nose nose.
Was it bad?
I'll never sniff again.
Come on, Henry.
We need all our senses to get information about the world around us.
Really?
Whoa.
How do you know the senses?
Well, there's taste.
I'm sure you know the others, Henry.
Think hard.
Um, hearing?
That's two.
Uh-huh.
Try another.
Hmm.
I'm beginning to smell something, right?
Three down, two to go.
Whoa.
Touch.
Oh, and sight.
That's five.
Yes, Henry.
You've made it.
I guess we do all need senses.
That's right, Henry.
Senses don't lie.
Animals use sight and smell.
Tell me about it.
Hearing, taste and touch.
They're not touching.
Many animals use their whiskers to feel the world around them.
You can't hide those lion eyes.
Henry, animal sense organs are specially adapted for their lifestyle and habitat.
For lions, excellent eyesight is the key to their survival.
We may see the world like this, but lions see the world like this.
Excuse me.
That's amazing.
I always thought every animal saw the world just like I do.
Lions see best in a broad strip straight in front of them.
Their sight is concentrated there.
It's easier for them to pick up the movement of prey animals on the African plains.
Look, the female lion has seen something.
She's starting to stalk.
Uh-oh.
But the zebras use sight too.
Their eyes on the sides of their heads give great all around vision.
If they see the lion early enough, they can escape.
So it's eyes versus eyes.
And the sharpest sight gives you the edge.
I see.
Oh, gross!
Hey, who turned out the lights?
Oh, I hope there's a good reason for this blindfold.
We're going to test your sense of smell, Henry.
Ah, that smells good. I like that. Just like a summer meadow.
What do you think of this one?
Poo! Reminds me of my cousin Rex's socks. Unreal!
Okay, try over here.
My sense of smell is really good. I bet I always get it right.
Hmm, not much aroma here.
Excuse me! Wait a minute. That's disgusting!
Actually, it's not. Pigs are very clean animals,
with a specially adapted nose that can smell even better than yours can.
Many other animals have amazing noses.
The tapir can use his as a snorkel to breathe underwater.
Down periscope!
Here in Costa Rica lives an animal with an amazing nose
and an amazing sense of smell.
This is the kawate, and its nose is so well developed,
it's sensitive enough to detect even the faintest smell of food.
Oh, I sure wish I could do that.
The kawate can smell turtle eggs,
one of its favorite foods buried in the sand.
It can? He can smell eggs right through sand?
Excuse me! That's amazing!
But who are his dinner companions?
These buzzards can see he's sniffed out a meal.
The kawate does the hard work,
and these buzzards try to steal any turtle eggs he may find.
Run, kawate! Run! Enjoy your omelet!
Fortunately, lots of turtle eggs do hatch,
and the turtles make it safely to the sea.
That's good. Sniff you later!
A sense of smell is very important in the insect world.
Even without a nose, insects can still have a great sense of smell.
Moths use their feathery antennae to collect smells.
So their antennae are like their noses?
Right, but their amazing sense of smell can be their downfall.
The bola spider knows just how to take advantage.
He's going fishing for moths.
I've heard of fly fishing, but this is something else.
The spider creates a great sticky ball that smells just like the scent
a female moth makes to attract a male, and it uses this as bait.
Sneaky!
The male moth is fooled into thinking it's a real female moth.
Here, muffy muffy!
I'm going to get you some food.
And he snags him.
Reel it in! That'll look great mounted over the fireplace in the spider's parlor.
Alright, Henry. Time for your eye test.
What for? There's nothing wrong with my eyesight.
Come on. Sight is the most important sense for many animals.
Now which is clearer, this or this?
Too close, too close.
What about this?
How many birds do you see, Henry?
Two. No, one!
Enough!
Calm down, Henry. Give your eyes a rest.
I bet buzzards snack on lizards.
You might be right.
Excuse me?
Oh, Henry.
As you can see, animals have different types of eyes, and they all see the world a little differently.
Let's take a vulture's eye look at the world.
Hey! I didn't know they could see so far.
This really is amazing.
Not only can they see a long way, they can also see in great detail.
What might look just like a shadow to you or me from thousands of feet up in the air, a vulture can see is actually a dead animal.
In other words, dinner.
Yuck!
Of course, the easiest way to find food is to keep an eye on the other vultures and let them lead you to the feast.
Only problem is, you have to share.
You mean share a rotting carcass?
It's a dirty job, Henry, but somebody's got to do it.
I'm just glad it ain't me.
The next best thing to having a bird's eye view is having a giraffe's eye view.
A giraffe can see well because it has huge eyes and a head that sits on top of a great long neck.
It's as high as a telephone pole, and the higher you are, the further you can see.
And these tall creatures can see for miles and miles.
But what about the cheetah? He's so short.
Where can he spot his lunch?
Get it? Spot!
Oh, Henry.
He knows that by climbing to the top of these rocks, he'll be head and shoulders above the rest of the pack and can eyeball a meal that's miles away.
What a cheetah!
Ah-ha!
I wouldn't touch that if I were you, Henry.
Ah, but touch is a sense, too.
How else will I know what's in here?
You could ask.
Hey, this is soft and cuddly.
It's a rabbit.
You were lucky this time.
Another!
You want to risk it all on what's in box number two?
It's something hairy and small and...
Spidery! It's a tarantula.
You know I'm scared of spiders.
I'll just see what's...
Oh, my hand!
You sure got the point that time.
The porcupine point.
Your hands aren't the only sensitive ones around, Henry.
This raccoon has an excellent sense of touch, too, which he uses to find food.
Always wash your hands before supper.
He may look like he's washing his hands, but he's actually fishing.
Using sensitive pads on his paws, he searches for a fish in the muddy water.
The raccoon's eyes may not be able to see it, but his hands can feel it.
Raccoon. That's a funny name.
It comes from the Native American word, a raccoon, or he who scratches with his hands.
Now you can see why.
Hey, he really caught a fish.
Excuse me, but that's amazing.
It's amazing, all right.
But to him, it's just day-to-day living using the sense of touch.
Seals need a special sense of touch, too.
They use their long, sensitive whiskers to do their feeling as they race around deep underwater.
With so little light, they can't rely on sight, so touch is the thing down here.
What's on the menu for lunch? Not seafood again.
Well, it's sure not going to be hamburgers, is it?
And this?
Excuse me, but I know what this is.
You do?
It's deep down in a cave where there's no light at all, so the animals are pale
and haven't even bothered to develop eyes because there's nothing to see.
And you just use touch all the time.
How did you know that?
I try to keep in touch with the facts of life.
I'm impressed.
So you should be. I may be a lizard, but I'm a pretty smart lizard.
Henry, time for your special report.
Henry, it's time for your report.
Come here. You are ready, aren't you?
Wow!
We're waiting for your report on the electric eel.
You are prepared, aren't you?
Sure. Ever stop to wonder how the electric eel got its name up in lights?
That's your report?
Yes. Well, it's because they are electric, as in charged, as in glows in the dark.
Really, Henry?
And that's pretty useful underwater where it's so dark a fish can't see its fins in front of its face.
Fish were always bumping into each other until someone had the bright idea of electric eels.
Result, enlightenment.
Ow! Sunglasses time.
Now fish could see to read their newspapers.
Everyone was happy as a clam.
When they needed more light for an underwater sporting event, they just asked a group of eels to cuddle together and...
Blam!
Eels are better than your average light bulb. They don't break.
And there's no electricity bill ever.
Henry!
It was such a stroke of genius. Perhaps we should fix them up around here.
Why should fish get all the fun?
All you need is an aquarium full of water, tossing a few eels, and wait for the glow to show.
At parties, they can put on colored suits and, hey, pretzel, instant disco.
Don't delay. Be the first one on your street to make a change to eel power.
And don't forget that Henry told you so. So it's straight from the lizard's mouth.
Do you really think anybody's going to believe that?
Yeah!
Well, I don't. The real fact is that eels use electricity in order to navigate and to eat.
They create an electric current by rippling their muscles, which can help them find their way in the South American rivers where they live.
But they can also direct the current and use it to stun fish, making them easy to catch and swallow.
They can produce up to 650 volts, which is enough of a charge to cause people to pass out and could even kill them.
Excuse me. That's amazing. And a bit scary.
I'm so thirsty I could drain a fish bowl.
But I'd rather have something really sweet and tasty.
I wouldn't suck too hard, Henry.
That wasn't very sweet, was it?
No, it's sour.
Okay, try this.
Mmm, much better. That tasted really sweet.
Your tongue senses what is sweet and what is sour.
Get out of here! Really?
Really. And it looks like this skink wants to use its tongue to taste you.
Or you.
Sometimes animals use taste for hunting. This is a banana slug.
And this giant Pacific salamander is tracking it down, using taste, by licking its slime trail.
Does the slime taste like bananas?
I don't know. But I do know a neat fact about the salamander.
Salamanders are the most common animals in the world.
And if it loses a limb, a tail, or even an eye, it can grow a brand new one. How about that?
That's amazing!
Imagine never having to worry about getting your tail caught in a door ever again.
And, as you'll see, the trail-licking Pacific salamander always gets its slug.
Yikes! Shark!
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the
bathroom. This is a blue shark. And it can detect even the smallest trace of certain things in the water.
Certain things like... blood?
Exactly. And it races in for a meal.
No!
It's a shark!
Exactly. And it races in for a meal. No!
Except this time, it's not blood. It's a whole bunch of shrimp-like creatures called krill.
It's not blood? So I don't have to faint?
No. I'd rather you told us who's won the Golden Gekko Award.
Okay. And now, Henry's amazing Golden Gekko Award for the all-time best animal sense.
Third place, bronze medal goes to the elephant-nosed fish. It senses prey with an electric pulse.
Second place in the battle of the senses goes to the green tree python with its heat-seeking vision.
Phew! I feel hot!
Watch out! That's just how the snake sees you.
But in first place, my Golden Gekko Award for all-time best animal sense is the bat-eared fox.
This cunning little vixen lives in Africa and has such great hearing that it can hear the tramping of thousands of teeny termites as they tippy-toe through their tiny tunnels.
The bat-eared fox can then burrow on down and eat its fill.
And it needs to eat a lot of these little fellas to keep itself from needing to snap between meals.
In fact, up to 70% of its diet is termites, with the odd dung beetle thrown in for dessert.
Mmm! Termites! Tummy, ticklingly tasty!
Dinosaur!
Gekko!
Dinosaur!
Gekko!
Henry!
Can you hear me?
Hearing is another sense, you know.
And you don't want to lose it, do you?
I was just getting into that.
It's a band called Heavy Metal Lizard.
You ever heard of them?
No, but listen up.
Hearing is one of our five main senses.
Hey, wait up. Where are her ears?
Snakes don't have ears, Henry,
but they can feel sound as vibrations.
Huh?
Now those are what I call ears.
Whoa!
Elephant ears aren't just for hearing, though.
These huge ears contain lots of blood vessels.
And when the elephant flaps them or the wind blows over them,
heat radiates away and cools the animal down.
It's important to be able to lose heat
when you're so big and live in a hot country.
I always wondered how they managed to stay together in a herd.
Don't they ever get lost?
After all, they're all ears.
They're lost.
After all, Africa is a big place.
I should know.
I went there on vacation once, and boy was it ever big!
Elephants keep in touch with a secret sound called infrasound,
a strange rumbling that's mostly too deep for humans to hear.
But other elephants in their family or group
can hear it over three miles away.
That's amazing!
Only the herd heard.
Get it? Ha-ha!
We got it, Henry.
And I always thought that hearing was just, well, hearing.
Hearing is a whole world in itself.
Look at these Bodo dolphins.
They live in rivers, and the water there is full of tree roots
and all kinds of things they could bump into.
But they don't. Guess why?
Hearing.
Right.
They produce a high-pitched clicking sound
from an organ called a melon on their forehead.
Whales have them too,
and they can project the sound out in front of them.
Like a flashlight?
A sound flashlight.
It hits things and bounces back at them,
so they can draw a mental map of what's around them.
A sound map every bit as good as a paper one.
Dolphins had sonar long before submarines were invented.
Excuse me, am I hearing right?
That's amazing!
I think you've got the picture, Henry.
I certainly know a lot more about amazing animal senses now.
Remember, if animals have something strange about their appearance,
it's often for a sensible reason.
Usually it's because one of their senses is especially well-developed.
The senses!
Taste.
Hearing.
Sight.
Hearing bird.
Smell.
Touch.
I've got them all!
Ah!
All except a sense of balance.
Very funny.
You're lucky I have a sense of humor.
Never mind, Henry.
At least you know about animal senses
and how they can be used in some amazing ways.
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