6 Animals With Supersenses
As the wonders of the animal world are explored, more and more things worthy of a superhero comic – or even horror, sometimes – end up showing up. Having super senses, of course, is one of the most fascinating things that you will be able to find in some representatives of the animal kingdom.
To illustrate this idea, in the following lines you will be able to read, sense by sense, the species of animals that stand out the most in each of the categories. In nature, the relationship with the environment can mean the difference between life and death at any time.
The view
Sight, being the sense that humans depend on the most, has always been one of the most studied in the animal kingdom. Here are 2 particularly surprising examples.
1. Diurnal raptors
These birds are well known for having high visual acuity. Their eyes have a special structure, since the eyeball is tubular in shape with around one and a half million photoreceptors in the retina.
In fact, these animals need a special organ called pecten – which is anchored to the retina – to be able to deliver all the necessary nutrients to feed these large numbers of cells. Humans have about 150,000 to 200,000 light receptors, while in the fovea of a raptor there are 1.5 million receptor cells.
In addition, their sight is considered within the super-senses for another detail: these birds have 2 foveas, one for central vision and another for peripheral vision. This means that they can fix their eyes on 2 points at the same time. Can you imagine being able to focus 2 objects at the same time?
2. The mantis prawn ( Odontodactylus scyllarus )
Visual acuity is not the only enviable thing in an animal. The mantis shrimp has recently been classified as having the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom : they have 12 color channels – most living beings have between 2 and 4 -. They have a way of encoding color information that is different from all other known animals.
This, however, does not endow these invertebrates with impossible color vision, but rather with great speed when it comes to discriminating basic colors. The speed of reaction to these stimuli is key when competing for a mate or fleeing from predators.
The ear
For you to have a reference, the range of sounds that the human is capable of hearing goes from 20 to 20,000 Hertz. In this section, you are going to meet 2 species: the one that falls into the category of super-senses for the treble and the one that does so for the bass.
3. Wax moth ( Galleria mellonella )
The wax moth is considered the animal with the best hearing on the planet. This species is capable of hearing ultrasounds of approximately 300,000 Hertz frequency.
Surprising as it may sound, this is no accident: the natural predator of this moth is the bat. Thanks to its incredible sensitivity to ultrasound, this moth can hear the echoes that the bat uses to detect it with its echolocation and thus avoid becoming its dinner.
4. African elephant ( Loxodonta africana )
This pachyderm occupies the second place of animals with better hearing, but this time on the side of infrasound. Elephants are able to communicate with each other through infrasound, but they also receive vibrations from the ground through their legs and communicate with them.
Thus, they can recognize calls from their colleagues or family in a range of more than a kilometer away. In addition, they can distinguish individuals from the vibrations they receive from the ground, depending on their footsteps.
Taste can also be among the supersenses
Taste, in humans, is directly related to smell, but certain basic flavors are processed through the taste buds of the tongue. In the following lines you have an animal whose sense of taste does not stay inside the mouth.
5. Tiger fish ( Galeichthys felis)
This fish, also known as catfish, has nearly 200,000 taste receptors throughout its body. That is, you can taste your surroundings through all of your skin. This animal even uses its tail as a tongue, as it caresses the surface it wants to taste, as if it were a lick.
The touch
This sense is not especially developed in humans, but some animals take it a step further. This is the case of manatees, whose characteristics we will see in the following lines.
6. West Indian manatee ( Trichechus manatus )
Also known as sea cows – for their gentle nature and herbivorous diet – manatees enter the league of super-senses thanks to their ability to sense objects that do not touch their body. How do they do that?
These mammals have the body covered with villi that function in a similar way to the vibrissae of a cat. The set of these tactile whiskers form a kind of their own sensory apparatus, which helps them detect changes in currents, temperature or the strength of the tide.
6. Smell
Although the most expected thing is to think of a dog or a wolf when it comes to super senses such as smell, you will be surprised: you have already discovered this animal in previous lines. The king of smell, indeed, is the African elephant (Loxodonta africana), with 1984 olfactory receptor genes.
Elephants have 5 times more genes of this type than humans – twice as many as dogs. The key is in the trunk: in addition to being used as a limb to explore and it has a very fine touch, its large size reinforces the efficiency of smell.
Are there other super senses?
To close this topic, we leave you with a reflection: the senses that we possess are not the only ones that exist. Echolocation, without going any further, allows cetaceans and other animals to make a spatial representation of their environment without using their sight.
Another wonderful example is the ability of some birds – such as pigeons – to perceive the planet’s magnetic fields and orient themselves through them. What wonders are we humans missing?
