Animal Senses Part 1: The Five Key Senses of Land Predators

In the animal kingdom, species depend on their senses to find mates, food, and to defend themselves—whether they are land creatures or water-borne ones. This cycle of life continues through each generation and into the future. There are five major senses that both predator and prey species possess. The purpose of each sense differs for the two types of species. Let us now discuss these five senses for land predators.

Sense of Vision in Mammals

Vision plays a crucial role for mammals. The majority of land predators hunt at night. Therefore, creatures such as tigers, lions, hyenas, wolves, and many others can see clearly in the dark. Their night vision is highly developed. These land predators always try to sneak up as closely to their prey as possible before launching their attack. To accurately judge the distance to their prey, they rely heavily on depth perception. To achieve binocular depth vision, the eyes of predators are positioned at the front of their face.

Image showing how 3D vision occurs in predators: depth vision of a predators like a lion, lioness and leopard

Predators such as the leopard depend heavily on their acute sense of sight and hearing. They have binocular vision, and so they can gauge the depth of their prey precisely. Source: botswana.co.za

Sense of Smell in Mammals

Smell is an important way for these animals to communicate with one another. Wolves’ sense of smell is well known. Dogs, which are descendants of wolves, have been used as scent dogs by humans for a long time. An elephant’s sense of smell is even stronger. Most mammals have an exceptionally sharp sense of smell. Bears, especially black bears, are known for their remarkable olfactory abilities.

A grizzly bear sniffing vegetation. Source: detroitzooblog.org

Sense of Touch in Mammals

The sense of touch and taste functions effectively in all mammals. The mammalian central nervous system is the most advanced among vertebrates. Most mammals are sensitive to heat, cold, pain, and pressure. Many mammals, including marine species, do not have much hair on their bodies. However, all mammals possess a good number of whiskers, also called vibrissae. These specialized whiskers greatly enhance tactile sensitivity around the face.

All predators have long facial whiskers. They are extremely sensitive and useful appendages. Photo Credit: unsplash.com/Ahmed Zalabany

Sense of Taste in Mammals

All creatures use taste buds to evaluate the things they eat. However, taste preferences vary widely from species to species. Humans have around 10,000 taste buds, chickens about 30, cats around 500, and dogs about 1,700. Herbivores have even more—between 15,000 and 25,000. Of course, catfish, with over 100,000 taste buds, top the list. Still, a higher number of taste buds does not necessarily mean a stronger sense of taste. What truly matters is how each species interprets the flavor of an object. The most critical concern for animals is whether the food is safe to eat. This is an instinct shared by all species.

A brown bear grabs a salmon in Bristol Bay, Alaska. Source: wildsalmoncenter.org/Dave McCoy

Sense of Hearing

Elephants can hear frequencies between about 17 Hz and 12,000 Hz. This means their low-frequency hearing is exceptional, though their upper hearing range is somewhat limited compared to humans. The human audible range is between 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz, with most people hearing well between 30 Hz and 18,000 Hz. Tigers can hear and produce infrasound - sound waves below 20 Hz that humans cannot detect. This helps them communicate across long distances or through dense, hilly, or forested areas. They can also detect sounds as high as 60 kHz.

The Fennec fox is a small fox endemic to the deserts of North Africa. Its enormous ears, relative to its head size, both dissipate the heat of their desert habitat and also allow them to hear the tiniest sound of their insect prey burrowing into the sand. Source: nationalgeographic.com

We will discuss the senses of prey species in our next blog, along with a few other examples of incredible senses that wild animals possess.

Did you know?

1.    Currently, there are about 6,400 extant species of mammals. Out of this, there are about 270 carnivorous species, 10,000 herbivorous species, and over 70% are rodent species.

2.    Using ultraviolet light, caribou or reindeer can detect the presence of wolves in severe winter dim light and find lichen, one of their food sources, even in thick snow. The lichen glows purple in white snow and is readily discernible.

3.    Elephants use their enormous ears to cool themselves like a fan. Also, their sense of hearing is so acute that they can hear sounds lower than 15 Hz and as high as 12,500 Hz! Theoretically, the human hearing range is 20–20,000 Hz, although in reality, it is about 30–18,000 Hz. The younger the people, the better their hearing.

4.    Elephants have a great olfactory sense (sense of smell). They can smell water from as far as 12 miles (19.3 km) or deep underground as well.

#wildlife #predatorandprey #animalsenses