Chapter 8: Making Sense Across the Animal World

Most of us are aware that our human senses are far from the only approaches to perceiving the world. Indeed, the English language has adopted several idioms that allude to more sophisticated senses found in the animal kingdom. You may have come across expressions such as having the “eyes of a hawk”, meaning you are unlikely to require prescription glasses, while someone described as a “bloodhound” will not rest until their target is sniffed out. In the next chapter, we will deal with some of the senses that evolution has deemed off-limits for mankind, though they are available to some of the non-human inhabitants of this planet. While the sensitivity of some animal senses far exceeds human capabilities, such as a dolphin’s impressive hearing and a shark’s sharp nose for smells, we should remember that we are all walking the slow path of evolution, and what is considered superior in one environment might be detrimental in another…