(apprehensive music) (animals chattering)
Anyone fascinated by the natural world
has probably wondered why some animals
have such strange-looking sense organs.
The elephant with its huge ears,
(elephant trumpets)
the antennae of a butterfly,
which up close look like feathers,
the snake with its split tongue,
and what about less obvious enhancements,
like the sensory cells on a crocodile's skin?
Surely these evolutionary traits
aren't just for decoration. (lively drumming music)
In fact, the size, shape, and location
of these animals' sense organs
is all for a purpose. (elephant trumpeting)
And just like us,
animals rely on their senses (birds cawing)
to communicate with each other,
find their way around, stay safe,
and most importantly,
(wolves growling)
to find food.
When you see (gentle music)
how superior some animal senses are
compared to those of humans,
you might wonder how we ever managed
to stay on top (bee buzzing)
of the food chain.
"Animal Super Senses", you won't believe what's possible.
(light rhythmic music)
On this episode of "Animal Super Senses",
we get in touch with the feelings of wild animals.
(leopard growling)
Really in touch.
Because animals, (chimpanzee chattering)
just like humans,
rely heavily on their sense of touch every day in every way.
(birds cawing)
There may be a fine line
between pleasure and pain, (chimpanzees howling)
but not knowing the difference between the two
can be absolutely fatal.
The sense of touch does more than tell us
about that ant (mosquito buzzing)
by biting into our skin,
or helps a grizzly bear to keep hold of a slippery salmon
when he is hungry.
Touch alerts animals to pressure,
heat, cold, wind,
and yes, pain.
(animal howling)
(animal chattering)
(elephant trumpeting)
Helping them to catch food,
manipulate objects in their paws,
but also to navigate and communicate.
(birds squawking)
(birds chirping)
Touch receptors, which include body hair,
inform the brain
about tactile sensations. (elephants trumpeting)
These receptors fall into two main categories:
mechanicoreceptors, which detect movement,
and thermoreceptors, (light tense music)
which respond to temperature.
(birds chirping) (light rhythmic music)
(birds chirping)
On the vast plains of the African Savannah,
there is an animal not famed for its sensitivity
when perhaps it should be.
After all, we are talking (elephants trumpeting)
about the largest living land mammal,
one that eats a minimum of 200 pounds per day
and whose skin is their own body armor.
But don't be fooled by their size,
their seemingly thick skin, or prodigious appetites.
African elephants and their Indian relatives
are remarkably sensitive creatures.
For one thing, they are highly intelligent animals,
which display complex social behaviors, such as courtship,
communal care, vocal communication, and play.
But they are also sensitive in the most literal
and most scientific use of the word.
(light electronic music)
To begin with, that thick skin,
up to one and a half inches thick,
is in fact highly tuned to the slightest touch.
And no part of the elephant's body is more tactile
than its trunk.
(elephant trumpeting)
Used primarily to locate and manipulate food,
elephants are herbivores and an elephant's trunk
is in constant use.
(tense electronic music)
They are remarkable for their strength
as well as sensitivity,
able to pick up objects in excess of 500 pounds in weight.
(dynamic electronic music)
But their trunks are also so responsive to touch
that they are capable of perceiving pressure differences
as low as 0.01 inch in depth. (bird squawking)
(elephants screeching and trumpeting)
The small sensory hairs on the tip of the trunk
are in part responsible for this sensitivity.
Called Pacinian corpuscles,
these cells pick up on the tiniest vibrations.
(tense electronic music)
It's interesting to note that Pacinian corpuscles
show up elsewhere in nature,
on human fingertips, for example.
On the elephant's trunk,
they are constantly in use as the trunk plays a part
not just in forging for food, but in that rich social life.
The trunk can be used to caress,
nudge, or nudge other members of the herd
not least during mating season.
(birds cawing)
(birds chirping)
(lighthearted music)
(birds cawing and chirping)
Well, as the old saying goes
you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours.
Mutual grooming is an important and practical way
for social animals
not only to look after one another, but also to form bonds.
(animals chattering)
There can be few bonds in the wild
stronger than a mother kangaroo and her baby joey.
While still the tiniest infant,
it climbs from its mother's abdomen
to her pouch and stays there for over six months.
Kangaroos then are used to intimacy
from the get-go.
Fun fact, a group of kangaroos
is called a mob.
To be accepted into the mob,
an outsider will be subject to a sniffing
but also a rubbing of noses.
(animals chattering)
(tense music)
Mutual grooming and touching may then proceed uninhibited.
But rub a kangaroo the wrong way,
and it could come to blows.
Ritualized fighting, or as it looks to us, boxing,
is a part of this marsupial's tactile toolkit.
(upbeat rhythmic electronic music)
It's that moment when a kanga's sense of touch
becomes a sense of ouch.
(dynamic music)
(animals rumbling)
(animals chattering) (light upbeat music)
(animals mooing)
Tens of thousands of miles away
from the Australian Outback
on the Serengeti National Park,
another very distinctive mammal uses touch
to strengthen bonds between family and herd.
Zebras live in herds as many as 1000 strong
but their first loyalty is always to the family group
which will generally number between five and 20 animals.
They will maintain these bonds over many years.
The bonds are strong.
For example, if an individual gets lost
or has to slow down due to age or injury,
the rest of the zebras will go on the lookout
for their lost companion
or adjust their traveling pace in response.
Something that strengthens those bonds are mutual groomings
where zebras line up alongside each other,
neck and neck and cheek to cheek as it were,
and nibble the hair on each other's neck and back.
That actually looks like fun.
(animals chattering)
(birds chirping)
(gentle music)
The sensory hairs on the skins of mammals
plays a big part in their sense of touch.
But if we shrink things down, the very same thing
applies to arachnids, spiders, for example.
(birds chirping)
This small but serious-looking customer
is a trapdoor spider.
It's able to detect vibrations and movement
through the tiny sensory hairs on its body.
(radar pulsing)
Trapdoor spiders, just as their name suggests,
are ambush predators,
meaning they lie in wait.
Just biding their time
until their spidey sense feels a vibration
and then they pounce
and then it is all over.
(dramatic music)
(gentle electronic music)
The orb weaver spider goes about snaring their prey
in a slightly different manner
but they too rely on their sense of touch
to get it right.
With their notably poor eyesight, they must.
(lively electronic music)
The webs they so cleverly weave
are not there only to ensnare their prey,
although they do that very effectively too.
The orb weaver spider's web
also extends their range of feeling
or sense of touch.
But perhaps the strangest application
of the super spidey sense of touch...
Sorry, how could we resist?
Isn't about luring and trapping prey
so much as about practicing safe sex.
As in the case with many arachnids,
the funnel web spider male spider is considerably smaller
than its female counterpart.
When the male wants to mate with a female,
he encounters a minefield
of potentially hazardous obstacles to success.
For one thing, the female, if caught by surprise,
will often simply eat her hapless suitor
and so much for romance.
If however, the male approaches her less aggressively
and in effect, strokes her shell with his legs
giving her what we might think of in anthropomorphic terms
as a back massage, then the female is less likely
to kill and eat him on approach.
And in fact, the male may be lucky
and survive several bouts of spider intercourse
before she finally decides
not only is she through with him
but she's hungry.
(tense music)
(bird cawing)
(dynamic music)
(tense music)
The sting is in the tail when it comes to scorpions.
If you ever feel their touch,
it may be the last thing you feel.
The desert crawlers we see here
are known as large hairy desert scorpions.
These scorpions still come with the same elongated body,
the same segmented tail, and yes, the same venomous stinger
at the end of that tail.
They have, count 'em,
four pairs of legs
and a pair of appendages called pedipalps
which look a lot like claws.
These work like pincers,
excellent for grasping hold of prey
and for defense.
Not only are they standard equipment for insect aliens
in every science fiction movie you've ever seen,
they're also highly intricate pieces of equipment.
Fine sensory hairs pick up on wind-borne vibrations.
(tense music)
Tiny organs on the tips of their legs can detect vibrations
in the ground.
And on its soft underbelly,
the scorpion rounds out their armory of touch sensors
with these comb-like sense organs known as pectines.
The teeth of his comb detect and evaluate
the texture and vibrations of different surfaces.
Hair sensors come in all sizes
from a microscopic to the outsized.
(light lively music)
(birds cawing and chirping)
(dynamic drumming music)
(bird cawing)
(lively drumming music)
(bird cawing)
(lively drumming music)
(bird cawing)
Whiskers, such as the ones you see on this cheetah
out on the prowl of the east African grasslands,
are an example of hair sensors
you can definitely see for yourself.
(zebras whinnying)
(dynamic music)
Whiskers, more correctly known as vibrissae,
supply their owners with vital sensory information
about their environment.
The follicle of each and every whisker
is connected to thousands of nerve receptors.
Meaning the animal can feel its way through its surroundings
by picking up on tiny vibrations
in the air or water.
No doubt this comes in handy for the cheetah
but this cat does its hunting during the day.
(birds chirping)
(insects chirping) (light rhythmic music)
Where whiskers really come into their own
as an alternative sensing device
is when day turns to night
and nocturnal predators must move
with stealth and accuracy.
(leopard growling)
There's no better example of a feline with wicked whiskers
than the leopard,
perhaps the most elegant night prowler of them all.
A leopard will typically have as many as 30 whiskers
on either side of its face,
meaning some 30,000 nerve receptors.
(tense rattling music)
They're acutely sensitive, enough to sense vibrations
in the changing air currents,
and in comparison with their size,
the leopard's whiskers are the widest
of all the felines,
wider in fact, than their bodies.
Sad to say, in Asia, leopard whiskers are prized
for the wrong reasons.
Used in dubious medicines, they are another reason
that poachers hunt this magnificent creature.
(waves rustling)
(birds chirping and squawking)
(eerie music)
Half a world and oceans away from such trouble,
the Australian sea lion is renowned
for its whiskery good looks.
(suspenseful music)
In fact, there's even a university-sponsored website
dedicated to studying the habits
of Western Australian sea lions
called Whisker Patrol.
(gentle suspenseful music)
But their facial hair isn't for decoration
nor does it have as much a part to play
when the Aussie sea lion wanders onto dry land.
No, their whiskers really come into their own
when the Australian sea lion goes underwater,
close to the sea floor.
(majestic music)
To hunt for squid, fish, octopus,
rock lobsters, and even small sharks,
the Aussie sea lion will typically seek out
this kind of prey by closing their eyes
and feeling around using their whiskers.
The sea lion's whiskers are in fact
a highly sensitive hydrodynamic receptor system.
In slightly simpler terms,
that means they could detect the tiny vibrations
that are created when fish and other tasty morsels
move through the water.
(gentle eerie music)
One of the creatures the sea lion hunts for is,
as mentioned, the octopus.
But octopi are outfitted with their own super sense of touch
helping them to elude capture
and to track down prey of their own.
As it has been captured in popular imagination
over the past few years,
the octopus is a highly intelligent animal.
It is the only invertebrate that is thought to use tools,
for example, gathering shells and using them as body armor.
Octopuses have even been known to break out
of their aquariums and get into others
in the hunt for a good meal.
There are even cases
where octopi have clamored aboard fishing boats
and opened up the hold to get at the crabs within.
But how do they do all that?
Well, their unusually high intelligence
doesn't hinder them,
but they go a long way
by utilizing their super sense of touch.
The blue ringed octopus depicted here
is commonly found in tide pools and coral reefs
of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
As with all of their kind,
they have two eyes and four pairs of arms.
Now, on each arm, there are two rows
of off-white colored suckers
that can be moved independently.
There are thousands of these little suckers
on an octopus's body
and every one of those suckers may contain
up to 10,000 neurons that detect the slightest touch
as well as taste.
What you most certainly don't want to do
is to come into close contact with a blue ringed octopus.
The venom it unleashes when it seizes its prey
is said to be over 1000 times
more lethal than cyanide. (tense music)
(lively music)
On "Animal Super Senses",
we touch it and feel it, see it and hear it,
taste it and smell it like animals do.
The senses are the star on this show
and this episode has been no exception.
The sense of touch has put us in contact
with all kinds of heightened sensations,
but these incredible powers
of perception will fight again another day.
So join us next time on "Animal Super Senses".
(dynamic music)