Eagles and other birds of prey can spot a rodent from 10-15,000 feet away. That’s a lot better than we can do! And not to mention, these birds can keep their focus while diving for the rodent- at over 100 miles per hour. Not to mention, it’s a moving target which makes these hunters incredible!
Fun Fact:
They can also see 5 different basic colors. That may not sound like much, but we only see three!
Hearing
Animal: Owl
Compared to Humans: 10 times better
Just to give you an idea:
They can hear even the faintest of sounds and use it to pinpoint the location of rodents. It is a built in sonar! We can’t do that so we need our eyes but owls are nocturnal and have developed excellent hearing.
Fun Fact:
In 30 millionths of a second they can hear a sound. They also have ears behind the eyes.
Touch
Animal: Manatee
Compared to Humans: N/A
Just to give you an idea:
A manatee can feel changes in tides, because they have “whiskers” all over their bodies. They can “touch at a distance” with them.
Fun Facts:
They study divers by puckering their mouth, concentrating it’s whiskers on the diver. There’s no need to freak out! They might like the divers!
Taste
Animal: Catfish
Compared to Humans: 25 times more taste buds.
Just to give you an idea:
They have 250,000 taste buds. They could taste a drop of Coke in an Olympic swimming pool – imagine that! They have no need to rely on eyes. They live in murky waters, after all. They can hunt with this sense!
Fun Facts:
Without taste buds, catfish would die. They would not be able to hunt at all.
Smell
Animal:Bear
Compared to Humans: 2100 times better
Just to give you an idea:
The best detectives in the animal kingdom are bloodhounds, but bears have a far better sense of smell.
They could smell a dead carcass, upwind, 20 miles away. So imagine camping- they can sure smell the stuff in your bag as well!
Fun Facts:
Believe or not, the bears noses have folds to create room for thousands of tiny receptors that assist smelling out prey and food.
