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(tiger growling)
(insects rasping)
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Any one fascinated by the natural world
has probably wondered why some animals
have such strange looking sense organs.
(elephant trumpeting)
The elephant with its huge ears,
the antennae of a butterfly
which up close look like feathers.
The snake when it's split tongue.
And what about less obvious enhancements?
Like the sensory cells on a crocodile skin?
Surely these evolutionary traits are just for decoration.
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In fact, the size, shape,
and location of these animals sense organs
is all for a purpose.
And just like us animals rely on their senses
to communicate with each other,
find their way around, stay safe
and most importantly, to find food.
When you see how superior some animal senses are
compared to those of humans,
you might wonder how we ever managed
to stay on top of the food chain.
"Animal Super Senses", you won't believe what's possible.
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This is "Animal Super Senses",
the show that grants you the vision and sound,
the sense and smells,
tastes and touches of the animal realm.
Those are the senses we share with most animals.
But what about those senses that no human is equipped with?
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(birds singing)
Some animals seem to have super human senses,
powers that can detect magnetic fields,
electrical fields and infrared radiation.
Yes, there's a whole spectrum of information out there
that just passes us ordinary humans by.
We need special technology to register and measure them.
Whereas some animals
come with their own biological equipment
just for that purpose.
Welcome to the arena of superhuman "Animal Super Senses".
(wind whistling)
(birds singing)
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We begin our journey with some animals
that are truly magnetic.
Tiny quantities of magnetite have been found in many animals
with a superior sense of direction.
But let's begin with a bit of a flutter
courtesy of the Monarch butterfly.
Small, but perfectly formed,
it is found in various habitats around the world
as far apart as new Guinea and Bermuda,
New Zealand and Mexico.
(birds singing)
Those found in the Eastern us and Southeast Canada
spend the summer months there before flying south for winter
to a single mountainous spot in Central Mexico.
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(birds singing)
It's journey that can see them fly up to 5,000 kilometers.
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(birds whistling)
The second and third generation Monarch butterflies
return in the spring.
But how do they know their way home
or indeed find their way south in the first place?
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By using their internal compass literally,
it used to be thought Monarch butterflies
navigated by the position of the sun.
But that didn't explain
how they continued in the right direction
even on heavily overcast days.
Not only that, but to adjust for changes in location
when they are literally blown off course.
The butterflies must be able to set
and reset their internal compass
based on their current location.
Biologists have found
Monarch butterflies have magnetic molecules in their brains
sensitive to the earth's magnetic field.
So really just like a compass.
(birds whistling)
They use these in combination with the sun's position
to make their epic journeys.
(birds whistling)
(wild beasts bellowing)
Any way you look at it long distance animal migrations
are one of the great wonders of the natural world.
(wild beasts bellowing)
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And nowhere more so than the marine environment
where migratory patterns can reach amazing magnitude.
(water gargling)
How these creatures find their way, there and back
navigating vast distances with such precision
was for a long time, a mystery.
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A riddle of sensory and behavioral biology.
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Sea turtles, like the loggerhead turtle here
are among the most extraordinary navigators
of the fathomless deep.
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(wind blowing)
(water vibrating)
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As hatchlings, baby turtles,
which have never before been in the ocean
are able to somehow set an unfailing course
towards the open sea and then maintain their heading
long after swimming beyond the visible shoreline
Little baby hatchling loggerhead sea turtles,
first swim from the Florida Coast
eastward to the north Atlantic.
Then gradually over the course of several years
following complicated migratory paths
over a huge expanses of seemingly featureless ocean
then return again to the north American shores.
Now the most difficult part of open sea navigation
is determining longitude or Easter or West position.
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It took human navigators
centuries of long distance voyages
to figure out how to do that.
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But luckily, loggerhead turtles
pick up on magnetic signals
in order to determine their position
both east, west, and north, south.
As adults they retain these phenomenal navigational skills
which guide them as they migrate
between specific feeding areas and nesting beaches.
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Other long distance migrators
thought to possess magnetic super power sense
include both humpback and sperm whales.
Sperm whales of course are easy to recognize
due to their enormous heads with prominent foreheads.
(water gargling)
They have the largest brain of any creature on earth.
They dive over 3000 feet in search of food
and consume about 3% of their body weight per day.
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When they dive for their dinner
they can hold their breaths for up to 90 minutes.
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Female sperm whales and calves
remain in tropical or subtropical waters
the whole year round
and apparently practice communal childcare.
Males become sexually mature at 18 years,
at which point they migrate to higher latitudes
where the water is colder and the pickings are richer.
Traveling alone or in groups,
they cruise the oceans at over 30 kilometers per hour.
Later, they head back towards the equator to breed.
These journeys would seem to require
a pretty foolproof internal compass.
Humpback whales meanwhile
are found in all the world's oceans.
In the Southern hemisphere,
humpback whales will migrate from Antarctica
to the subtropical coastal waters
of Western and Eastern Australia and Fiji,
where they made and give birth during the winter and spring.
Northern humpback whales on the other hand,
find their way from Alaska to Hawaii
swimming in a straight line.
We're talking journeys
that are thousands of kilometers long.
How do they do it?
One theory is they have a unique guidance system,
utilizing a combination of solar and magnetic navigation.
This hypothesis comes in part from mass strandings of whales
thought to be affected by solar activity
causing disturbances to the earth's magnetic field.
And the fact that small quantities of magnetite
have been found in the brains of humpback whales.
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Another ocean Leviathan, the shark finds its way around
thanks to the power of electroreception.
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In fact, every type of shark breed
has electrical sensors in their nose and heads
named after a 17th century of science
called Stefano Lorenzini.
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The ampullae of Lorenzini
are actually special electro receptor organs.
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Though named almost 350 years ago,
it was only in the 1960s where Dutch scientists
were able to identify the main function
of Lorenzini's ampullae, electroreceptivity.
In the last 15 years, it's been concluded
that sharks can also perceive temperature deviations
using the electro sensory system.
When a fish swims through the water,
it generates an electric field
which is detected by the sharks.
These sensors wouldn't work
anywhere near as well in the open air,
but salt water is an excellent conductor of electricity.
Even a stingray hidden beneath the sand is not safe
from the sensors of a hammerhead shark.
So while its name might suggest anything but refinement
the hammerhead shark as seen here
does have a very refined sense of electroreception.
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That's thanks to the size
and shape of their broad flat heads.
Meaning the ampullae are spread over a greater surface area.
So sensing out prey is made that much easier.
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And now to an animal that's an exception to the rule
and just about every other rule.
The Platypus known to as the duck-billed Platypus
is a semi-aquatic egg-laying mammal
found only in Eastern Australia and Tasmania.
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The first scientist to examine a specimen
believe they were victims of some elaborate taxidermy hoax.
Well, the Platypus is definitely a one-off.
It has a duck bill and web feet,
a beaver tail and the body shape and fur of an otter.
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Now platypuses are also venomous
with sharp stingers on the heels of their rear feet
that will knock out just about anything with a pulse.
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These Australian mammals are bottom feeders
that will hunt under water.
In spite of their mishmash of physique,
they make surprisingly graceful swimmers.
They paddle with their front webbed feet
and steer with their hind legs and that beaver light tail.
(water gargling)
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When they submerge, folds of skin cover their eyes and ears
and stop water from entering
and their nostrils are sealed shut.
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The Platypus can remain underwater
for a minute or two at a time
using its sensitive duck bill to find food.
Shellfish, worms, larvae and insects
make up the bulk of the Platypus' diet.
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Along with bits of mud and gravel,
all these consumables are stored in pouches
in the Platypus' cheeks.
When they come to the surface
they match everything up and eat it
using the bits of gravel to help them chew their food.
Well after all, it's not like they have teeth.
But if their eyes and nostrils are closed under water
then how do they manage to sense potential food
when it's around?
The answer can be found on its duct light bill.
Each and every Platypus bill
contains around 40,000 electroreceptors arranged in rows.
The electrical impulses alert the Platypus'
to objects under water.
The electrical currents
travel through water better than air
and the Platypus' side to side swimming style
surely helps conductivity too.
(water gurgling)
(insects rasping)
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Let's head back to dry land to the forests and woodlands
of either Papua New Guinea or Australia.
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That's where you'll find this spiky fellow.
The echidna, a short beak to echidna in this case.
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Sometimes known as spiny anteaters
the echidna is like the Platypus an egg-laying mammal.
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If you live in Australia,
you have seen its likeness on the 5 cent coin.
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But unlike the Platypus,
the spiny anteater spends all of its time on dry land,
giving you the distinction
of being the world's only terrestrial egg-laying mammal.
The echidna is also the only land born mammal
we know to possess the super sense of electroreception.
Put simply hundreds of receptors
concentrated in the tip of the snout
allow it to pick up on natural electrical stimuli.
This is particularly useful
when it comes to hunting for buried prey.
The short beat a now echidna as seen here
uses those electoralreceptors
to pick up on the movements of ants and termites.
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Concealed as they may be to the naked eye,
but the humidity of their nests
particularly after the rain is a dead giveaway.
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And now, from curious egg-laying animals
to a creature that most of us
would probably pass by without a second thought
given the opportunity.
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We speak now of the dung beetle.
Not the most glamorous of creations,
this humble insect is actually remarkable in several ways.
Okay, let's deal with their diet first.
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Just as their name suggests
dung beetles are beetles that feed exclusively
or for the main part anyway on done feces.
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Industriously laboring away
on the lower end of the food chain
they possess exceptional talent as dung disposal units.
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Wyat single dung beetle
can bury dung that is 250 times its own body weight
in the course of it one night.
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Because this critter does a lot more
than just live up to its name.
It calls to mind something the writer
in which Oscar Wilde once said,
"We are all in the gutter
but some of us are looking at the stars."
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Well, as it turns out
the dung beetle is looking at the stars.
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Dung beetles have compound eyes
that are built for low light.
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While most insects would only be able
to see a few of the brightest stars in the sky,
the Milky Ways' distinctive streak of light
is a useful navigation tool.
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It has been deduced already
that dung beetles use polarized moonlight
to walk backwards in a straight line.
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But figuring out how they orient themselves
on moonless nights, has just been discovered.
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Scientists tested the idea
that dung beetles exploit the starry sky for orientation.
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They created special little hats made from black cardboard
which were taped to the heads of dung beetles.
The hats block, the beetles view of the night sky
and confirm the scientist's hunch
that these insects navigate
by using the Milky Ways' map of the stars.
The theory was confirmed in a planetarium
where a projection of the Milky Way was turned on and off.
The dung beetle is now in the sensory spotlight.
The humble poo gatherer
presents the first use of the Milky Way for orientation
in the animal kingdom.
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A sunset is a thing of beauty
but it's more than that for songbirds.
Recent research in two songbird species
Swainson's thrushes and great cheek thrushes
has demonstrated that.
Scientists are positive,
these birds could detect earth's magnetic field
even if they're not quite sure how.
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While it's well-documented
that animals such as sea turtles
rely on internal stores of mineral magnetite
which act like tiny magnetic needles in the animal cells
how birds do it is still a mystery.
Receptors in their eyes
or do they do it with their sense of smell?
The theory so to speak is still out.
Whatever the case, even though these birds
are well-equipped to detect earth's magnetic field,
they also need to calibrate
their internal compass from time to time
on a daily basis in fact.
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Relying solely on earth's magnetic field
could have the effect of blowing the songbirds off course
as the field shifts direction
in their north American breeding grounds
enter the sun, which always sets in the west.
It's nice to know that even for animals
with superhuman senses,
sometimes the eternal verities stay true.
On "Animal Super Senses", the stars are the senses.
And in this episode, they've taken us
from the ocean's depths to the skies above.
From life teeming beneath our feet
to one of the largest creatures on earth.
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We have been on a journey of senses,
superhuman animal senses, but the trip is far from over.
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These incredible powers of perception
will live to fight again another day.
So join us next time on "Animal Super Senses".
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