Elephants are the most powerful sniffers

Amazing genes: The elephant's exceptional sense of smell likely helped the species survive and navigate their environment through the ages. - Filepic

Elephants possess a sense of smell that is likely the strongest ever identified in a single species, according to a recent study by Japanese scientists.

The African elephant’s genome contains the largest number of olfactory receptor (OR) genes – nearly 2,000 – said the study in the journal Genome Research.