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(dramatic music)

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(tigers growl)

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Anyone fascinated by the natural world

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has probably wondered why some animals

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have such strange-looking sense organs.

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(elephant growls)

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The elephant with it's huge ears,

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the antennae of a butterfly which up close

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look like feathers.

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The snake with it's split tongue

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and what about less obvious enhancements,

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like the sensory cells on a crocodile's skin?

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Surely these evolutionary traits aren't just for decoration?

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In fact, the size, shape and location

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of these animal sense organs is all for a purpose

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and just like us, animals rely on our senses to communicate

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with each other, find their way around, stay safe

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and most importantly to find food.

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When you see how superior some animal senses are

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compared to those of humans,

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you might wonder how we ever stayed

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on top of the food chain.

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Animal super senses, you won't believe what's possible.

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(upbeat music)

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When the sun sets, the animal kingdom swap shifts.

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Day workers go to sleep while others get active.

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This is the night shift and nocturnal animals

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have taken to this dark world for good reason,

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they escape from predators, avoid the heat of the day

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and take their turn sharing food and resources

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in their niche.

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But to navigate life in the dark,

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you need some special abilities to cope

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with the lack of light.

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In this episode of animal super senses,

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we find out more about the animals that live in the shadows

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and the adaptations they need to survive.

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Eyes rely on light, so it may come as a surprise to learn

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that some nocturnal animals depend on a great deal

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of their sense of sight to operate in the darkness.

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(upbeat music)

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Having large eyes, helps to compensate for low light levels.

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The ring-tailed possum is an Australian marsupial

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that spends the night feeding on leaves, flowers and bugs.

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(upbeat music)

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They live life in the trees.

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(upbeat music)

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An agile climber with claws on the hands and feet

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including thumbs that help it to leap from branch to branch.

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And a strong prehensile tail that acts like a fifth limb.

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With large eyes, the possum has superb night vision.

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Although, not a predator, the eyes face forward

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providing binocular vision and depth perception,

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useful for judging distances when jumping through the trees.

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Gliders are a type of possum and like the ring-tailed,

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they are forest dwellers.

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But instead of climbing from tree to tree,

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these possums do as their name suggests, glide.

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A thin membrane attached between their ankle and wrist

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helps them to fly.

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Sugar gliders gnaw through bark of eucalyptus

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and acacia trees to get the sap and gum underneath.

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In spring and summer, they boost their diet with insects.

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To search for food, they fling themselves from one trunk

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to the next in the pitch black.

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So, it helps a great deal for gliders

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to have excellent night vision.

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They are outfitted with huge, bulging eyes

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but that's not all.

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Experts think their widely spaced eyes

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allow them to triangulate distance

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and prepare them for gliding to the next food source.

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(dramatic music)

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But the prize for the biggest eyes

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to a strange-looking creature

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that lives beyond Australia's northern boundaries.

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Tarsiers are tiny primates found in the jungles

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of southeast Asia.

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(dramatic music)

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Their eyes are so large that one eyeball is bigger

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than it's brain.

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Foraging at night, large eyes help the retina

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to collect more light.

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Gremlin-like and entirely carnivorous,

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they eat a variety of insects,

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pouncing on them using powerful hind legs

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from their treetop perches.

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Long, spindly fingers help them cling to trees

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and can be used as a kind of cage to trap prey

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in the forest night.

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Their forward facing saucer eyes

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can't move in their sockets and take up half of their skull.

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Because of this, thanks to specially adapted vertebrae,

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Tarsiers have an owl-like ability

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to turn their heads 180 degrees in each direction.

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This gives them a very wild field of vision,

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keeping an eye out for both prey and predators.

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(dramatic music)

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The Tarsier has the biggest eyes in relation

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to their body size of any mammal.

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If human eyes were as big, they would be the size

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of grapefruits.

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(dramatic music)

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Tarsiers also have excellent hearing

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with thin, mobile ears that can be unfurled

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and retracted as needed.

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They can easily pick up the sounds of scurrying insects.

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It's gizmo's ability to detect and grab prey at night

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using it's phenomenal senses

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that is the key to it's success.

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But unusually, they don't have one ability

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that is common amongst nocturnal animals.

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(dramatic music)

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When you look out into the darkness,

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it can be somewhat alarming to see eyes glowing back at you.

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The eerie twinkling is produced by nocturnal animals.

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Cats eyes shine when caught in the glare

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of a torch or a headlight, Tarsiers' eyes don't.

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(dramatic music)

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There is a layer of reflective cells at the back

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of the eye behind the retina known as the tapetum.

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This layer bounces protons of light back

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giving the eyes' sensory cells a second chance

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at absorbing the rays.

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Pigments in the retina reflect the color

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of the reflected light.

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(dramatic music)

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Not all nocturnal creatures have good eyesight.

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Bilbies are desert dwelling marsupials

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from Central Australia.

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They avoid the heat of the day by being active at night.

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(dramatic music)

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Also known as the rabbit-eared bandicoot,

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as the name suggests, the bilby has huge outer ears,

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all the better to hear with.

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(dramatic music)

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They have a large pinnae, or external ear

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that helps to funnel sound to the inner ear

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and gives the bilby it's excellent sense of hearing.

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The bilbies' big ears are hairless

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and thought to be useful for regulating body temperature.

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They're also flexible and can be rotated,

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held flat against the body, stuck out

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or even folded in half.

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Bilbies aren't fussy when it comes to food.

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Helped by a long pointy nose

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with an excellent sense of smell.

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They forage for subterranean insects, bulbs, seeds

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and fungi by digging through the soil with powerful limbs

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and foreclaws.

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(dramatic music)

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It's thought they have such long ears

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so that when bilbies are digging deep,

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a portion of it remains above the ground

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to keep an ear out for predators.

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Perfectly adapted for arid conditions,

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they don't drink water but get all the fluids they need

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from food.

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By the day, the bilby sleeps in deep, spiral burrows

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which can dug two meters into the ground.

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This protects them from the heat and daytime predators.

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(dramatic music)

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In the arid Sonoran region of North America,

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another desert dweller, the kangaroo rat

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goes about it's nightly business eating grass seeds

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and stuffing them into it's cheek pouches.

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(upbeat music)

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This little hopper has specialized ears

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but it's not the external part we see like the bilby

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but the inside ear that's the key

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to their supersized hearing.

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(upbeat music)

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They have an enlarged eardrum and huge, air-filled chambers

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in the middle ear.

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This gives them acute sensitivity to sound,

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especially those at lower frequencies.

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This little rat may seem like it's had too much caffeine

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but there's a good reason for it's bizarre behavior.

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There's a hunter nearby with rat for dinner on it's mind.

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Research has shown that the kangaroo rats' ears

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are adapted to nocturnal life

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allowing them to hear the low frequency sounds of predators

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such as owls, windbeats or a rattlesnake's scales

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rubbing against the ground.

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The kangaroo rat senses danger and drums it's feet

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on the ground and these low frequency sounds

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warn it's offspring to be on alert.

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But it also sends a message to the snake,

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that it's presence has been detected

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and that the odds of catching a meal are low.

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The snake meanwhile, will continue

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to wait for an opportune moment

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and it uses every sense at it's disposal

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to make sure that it will eventually eat.

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After all, it's life depends on it.

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Rattlesnakes, an iconic North American snake

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known for it's characteristic rattle

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found at the tip of it's tale.

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(snake rattles)

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(dramatic music)

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As night falls, a hungry rattler will move about

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looking for a spot to ambush prey.

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They use their heightened sense of smell to detect food

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by flicking their tongues in and out.

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This picks up scent particles and deposits them

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on the Jacobson's organ,

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a specialized chemical detecting structure

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located in the roof of the mouth.

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Rattlers are also known as pit vipers

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because they have heat sensing organs

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located in pits near their eyes.

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This heat vision super sense is a useful tool for predators

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that need to hunt prey in total darkness.

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The pits allow them to see the heat signature of the prey.

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The warmth given off by an animal

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compared to it's cooler surroundings

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which provides a heat image.

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With an exceptional sense of smell

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and super sense heat seeking vision,

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it's little wonder the rattlesnake

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is a formidable nocturnal hunter.

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Down under, the rattlesnake may have competition

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for the title of most affective nighttime killer.

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The cat-sized tiger quoll is a meat-loving marsupial.

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(dramatic music)

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This veracious hunter eat possums, bandicoots, reptiles

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and birds, tracking them down

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with it's superior sense of smell.

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Like miniature bloodhounds, their movements are slow

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and deliberate, with nose to the ground,

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they follow the scent trails of their prey.

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Once food is detected, they are quick to attack.

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Razor sharp canines deliver the killing bite.

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They're not fussy eaters and if they sniff an easy meal

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like a dead wallaby laying around,

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they will happily chow down.

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But it's the quoll's sense of smell that may be even

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more important to their survival.

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It could actually save them from extinction.

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In the top end of Australia, the northern quoll population

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is in rapid decline.

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An invasion of toxic king toads is the cause.

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Northern quolls have a taste for the amphibian

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but once eaten, they soon succumb to the poison

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from the glands on the king toad's shoulders.

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Researchers are putting them through quoll school

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by feeding them sausages made of king toad legs

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laced with a chemical to make the quolls feel sick

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and it's working.

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The quolls are turned off their deadly diet.

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(upbeat music)

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In terms of antepodean nightmare animals,

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the quoll keeps good company.

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(dramatic music)

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Along with it's cat-like cousin, the Tasmanian devil

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is also a member of the family of flesh-eating marsupials

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only much bigger.

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It is the largest of the carnivorous marsupials.

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As aggressive, brawling beasts,

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their ferocious behavior is legendary.

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During the day, the devil rests in caves or hollow logs,

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then comes out at night to find food.

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Like the quolls, they have a well-developed sense of smell

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but are rather clumsy when it comes

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to actively pursuing prey.

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They prefer to scavenge on the dead.

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And it's at dinnertime,

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they will often encounter other devils.

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Jaw-wrestling, teeth-clashing, loud yowls and screams

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are all common in territory disputes.

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But a sense of touch is used here to minimize fighting.

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Tasmanian devils have long whiskers,

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not only in the usual whiskery places like the face

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but also in clumps far back on the top of the head.

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Their long whiskers help them forage in the dark.

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They also help devils space themselves from each other

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when gathering together at a carcass.

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If devils whiskers are not touching each other

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when they are feeding, they're safely outside

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of biting range and with a bite force

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among the highest recorded for any species,

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that is something to avoid.

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With such a super sense resume,

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it's not the kind of creature you want to come across

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on an evening stroll.

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Following on the theme of Halloween frights,

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another creature that haunts our nightmares, the bat.

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(dramatic music)

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Vampire movies have a lot to answer for,

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giving this little creature a bad reputation.

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But microbats, like the

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(indistinct) Mexican free-tailed bats eat insects not blood.

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During the summer (indistinct) females

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form maternity colonies where they give birth.

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These groups can number hundreds of individuals

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in what is known as a nursery roost.

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For three to four weeks, the baby bats are fed solely

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on their mother's milk.

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Feeding young costs energy and research has shown

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that lactating (indistinct)

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make two foraging trips per night

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to feed their growing young.

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With a jerky, erratic flying style,

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they pursue insects which they eat on the wing.

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A single (indistinct) can consume up to 3,000 insects

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in one night.

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It's phenomenal prowess and aerial hunting

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is thanks to a special super sense, echolocation.

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Finding and catching small quick-moving insects

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in the pitch black is not easy.

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Vision is limited in low light,

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so instead of using their eyes,

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microbats see with sound.

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They fire sound waves out into the darkness

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and listen to echoes that come back.

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Using echolocation,

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the bat can determine where an insect is,

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how far away it is and in what direction it is moving.

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It's a technique humans use

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to develop sonar navigation systems in the military

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using expensive technology.

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The little bat, of course, just does what comes naturally

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with it's super sense.

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The senses are the stars on animal super senses

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and this episode has been no exception.

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We've discovered animals use a range of sensory tools

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to cope with life in the darkness.

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Living the night shift doesn't stop nocturnal animals

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using every sensory tactic in the book to survive.

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So next time you're out there in the dark,

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watch out for things that go bump in the night.

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Join us next time on super senses to find out more

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incredible powers of animal perception.

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{\an8}(dramatic music)