We like to think we’re at the top of the food chain and therefore pretty smooth but when it comes to smelling power, there are plenty of animals that outperform us.
African giant pouched rats are helping us by sniffing out landmines. They are better than dogs at detecting buried explosives and they’re so light that they can walk over the mines without blowing them up. Even more impressive, the rats can cover 200sq m in 20 minutes – so they work at a run.
African giant pouched rats are working in their own continent in places like Tanzania and Angola but they’ve also worked in neighbouring Cambodia.
Wild bears are known for their amazing sniffing skills. Silvertip Grizzlies can track food for up to 30km. In the Arctic, polar bears lie on the ice that is several feet thick, breaking through it when they smell seal breath.
Interestingly, while estimates that wild bears may be out sniffing bloodhounds by up to seven times, a study of captive pandas and bespectacled bears showed that the zoo animals didn’t distinguish between baskets with food and empty baskets. Instead of making straight for the food, they checked them all out at random.
Great white sharks are famous for being able to smell blood in the water. In tests, they can pick out scents at one part per 25 million and one part per 10 billion. That means that you could put one drop of blood in a small swimming pool, and the shark would be able to detect it.
While that’s impressive, studies have shown that all fish have the same ability. In one test, salmon were diving out of the way when scientists dumped a bit of bear scent into the river, while in another, clown fish were swimming towards enticing leaf scent.
Fish use their amazing sense of smell in order to find food, locate mates and navigate. As oceans are becoming more acidic, current focus is on whether fish can adapt. If not, there will be significant problems.
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