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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 origins.

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The elephant with its huge ears.

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The antennae of a butterfly,

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which up close, look like feathers.

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The snake with its 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 their senses

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to communicate with each other, find their way around,

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stay safe, 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 managed

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to stay on top of the food chain.

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Animal super senses.

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You won't believe what's possible.

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(mysterious music)

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What we see above the ground

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is only a small part of the natural world.

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A busy complex web of life lies just beneath our feet.

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Fossorial animals are well adapted to life underground.

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They live in burrows, tunnels, and mounds,

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using the earth or whatever substrate they live in

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to build their homes,

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find their food and friends,

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and stay safe from enemies.

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In this episode of "Animal Super Senses,"

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we find out more about the animals that have their feet

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firmly planted on or under the ground,

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and find out how their senses are tuned to survive.

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For animals that live underground,

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adaptations for digging deep come with the territory.

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That includes strong limbs, claws to dig with,

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and a keen sense of touch.

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The wombat is the largest burrowing mammal,

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found in the temperate forest of southeastern Australia.

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They have stocky powerful limbs, short necks,

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and broad flattened skulls

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perfect for pushing through the soil.

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Their forepaws are used for excavation.

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(playful music)

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They can remove just about any obstacle with their incisors.

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To expand the sides and roof of a tunnel,

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wombats twist the upper body and perform barrel rolls.

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Their front end is backed up by an impenetrable posterior.

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Wombats have what is called a dermal shield on their rear,

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a plate of bone, muscle, and cartilage

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that can help defend their home from intruders.

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They can seal the entrance with their tough bums

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or squeeze under the invader

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and slam them against the tunnel roof.

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To avoid the heat of the day,

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this marsupial stays cool in its burrow.

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The wombat comes out at night to feed on grass

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and the roots and bulbs of plants.

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They are able to pick up the most tender shoots

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because of a split upper lip,

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and to cope with their fibrous diet,

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they have open rooted teeth that are continuously growing,

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a feature unique among marsupials.

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A sense of touch is highly advanced

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in those that have a habit of living like a Hobbit,

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and the wombat is no exception.

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Their cheeks, jaws, and wrists are covered in vibrissae,

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whiskers that are specially designed for tactile sensing.

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Many animals that live the subterranean life

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have a need to be in close contact with their surroundings.

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It's a sense known as positive thigmotaxis,

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and although wombat senses haven't been studied too closely,

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it's likely they have this need

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to be in touch with tight places too.

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In deserts of central Australia, there are other creatures

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many times smaller than the wombat

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who also make their home underground.

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To shelter from the searing heat,

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rodents escape by burrowing deep into the cracks

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formed in the gibber or stone-covered plains.

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Feeding mostly on seeds during the nighttime,

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they are perfectly adapted to the arid climate.

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They get all their fluids from their food.

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Gibber rodents live in small colonies,

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keeping in contact with burrow mates

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using a variety of calls including squeals,

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whistles, chirps, and chatters.

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It's thought that their hearing is best

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at ultrasonic frequencies,

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perhaps an adaptation to avoid predators

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who may be listening above the ground.

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This rodent is not alone.

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Its subterranean shelter could be its undoing.

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Another creature is searching for sanctuary

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from the sun's heat and looking for a tasty meal.

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(dramatic music)

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The Inland Taipan dwells in the cracks and crevices

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of the dry rocky plains, and lucky for them,

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their favorite food lives in the same place.

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Cornering the rodent in its burrow,

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the taipan strikes with deadly poise,

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injecting a lethal cocktail of paralyzing poisons.

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Its highly toxic venom is considered to be

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the most potent of any land snake in the world.

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The venom acts so quickly,

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the victim has little time to fight back.

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Food is scarce and the desert

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and the snake must make use of every sense to find its prey.

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Smell tasting is the most important tool for sensing food.

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(dramatic music)

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The fork tongue flicks rapidly,

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tasting the air for prey odors.

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This chemical information is then passed

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to the Jacobson's organ in the roof of the mouth,

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and then back to the brain for processing.

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Taipans can also detect their prey by sensing movement.

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They can hear by picking up vibrations along the ground.

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These travel through to the inner ear

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by means of a chain of bones in the lower jaw.

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Using its senses in this underground lair,

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the snake is a supremely adapted killer.

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(dramatic music)

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Searching for prey certainly tests

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the sensory limits of animals,

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but when your food is minuscule and hidden,

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it really does need super senses to find them.

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The short beaked echidna has a specialized diet.

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It only eats ants and termites

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found deep under mounds and logs.

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To get to the insect nibbles,

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the echidna now uses its powerful stout limbs

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to dig into the soil and rip open rotten wood.

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The front feet have five flattened claws

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and the hind feet point backwards,

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helping the animal to push the soil away when burrowing,

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but it is the echidna's nose that is key to its success.

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(playful music)

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Highly tactile, eight centimeters long and rigid,

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this fair-sized proboscis helps this spiny anteater

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forage and poke around for food.

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The tongue can dart out to a length

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of 18 centimeters to catch its prey,

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and with the help of some very sticky saliva

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with the consistency of molasses,

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ants and termites have little chance of escape.

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The snout is covered with tough, hairless skin

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containing glands and sensory receptors.

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Echidnas can detect prey by smell,

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but they also have an additional sense

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found only in a handful of animals on the planet.

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With the tip of the snout,

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they are thought to have the ability to sense electricity.

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Until recently, the platypus and echidna

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were the only mammals known to use electroreception.

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Both are monotremes, egg-laying mammals,

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an ancient order of animals

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left over as a relic of evolution.

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(relaxed music)

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The structures responsible for the electric sense

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in echidnas are sensory mucus glands.

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It's not fully understood how they use these,

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but tests have shown they can detect

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weak electric fields in water.

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As water is a good conductor of electricity,

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echidnas may be able to detect moving prey in moist soil.

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(relaxed music)

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Even with a tough snout,

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echidnas generally avoid large biting ants for good reason.

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These nests are usually safe from anteaters.

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That's because there's a formidable fighter within.

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Australian bulldog ants are among the biggest

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and most primitive members of the ant world.

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They also pack a punch in their venomous sting.

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(relaxed music)

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Easily recognizable by their huge jaws,

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bulldog ants use their sizable mandibles to carry food,

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construct nests, and defend their territory.

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They are active hunters and ferocious.

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If an intruder dares to venture near,

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the colony swarm out and attack within seconds,

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stinging them repeatedly with their venom.

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The ant chamber is underground

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and can extend several meters below the surface.

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It's here the queen lays her eggs,

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which hatch into fat, helpless larvae

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lavishly tended to by workers.

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Most ants have poor eyesight,

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but a few have exceptional vision,

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and the bulldog ant is one of them.

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And they need their super sight to keep up

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with the insatiable appetites of their young siblings.

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Adults feed mainly on honeydew and nectar,

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but the larvae are carnivorous.

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The infants signal their hunger by raising their heads.

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Worker ants on dinner duty leave the nest and hunt alone,

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using their large eyes to find prey.

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Once they find a victim, they immobilize it

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with a deadly strike and carry it back to the nest.

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(upbeat music)

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Workers bring dead beetles and bees into the chamber.

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The larvae attach and feed straight away.

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In their underground lair,

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it's important to be in constant contact with nest mates,

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both adults and young.

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The ants' antennae are special organs

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that help them detect chemicals

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and are also the touch sensor.

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They are used to identify friends from foe.

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Such an important sensory tool

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needs to be kept in top condition,

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and ants spend a great deal of time preening their antennae.

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An ant colony is a finely tuned machine

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with thousands of workers going about their jobs.

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And it's their super senses that keep

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this well-organized metropolis ticking along.

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Bulldog ants prove that being pocket-sized

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doesn't mean you're powerless,

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but there's a beast that ants would prefer not to run into,

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the antlion.

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It's not an ant and definitely not a lion,

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and although it may not be as big as the king of the jungle,

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it's no less deadly.

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They are the larval form of a type of lacewing insect,

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and they are an ant's worst nightmare,

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because antlions build death traps

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for their unsuspecting prey.

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They live buried in the sand,

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where the larvae dig funnel-shaped pitfalls

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with such efficient construction

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it would put an architect to shame.

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The slope is steep enough to guide prey to their mouths

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but shallow enough to avoid avalanches.

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(playful music)

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The trap's sides are set at a perfect angle.

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When prey falls in, it has no way of getting out.

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Thanks to the unique wave propagation properties of sand,

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antlions can make use of the sand-borne vibrations

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to sense when their prey is near.

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These vibrations are picked up

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by sensory hairs on the head and antenna.

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It seems the antlion's senses are perfectly in tune

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with its sand-locked life.

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Deep in the Namib Desert of Southern Africa

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is another predator who detects prey

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from vibrations carried through the sand.

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These are sit and wait huntsman spiders,

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and this parched earth is their home.

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The Namib Huntsman live in burrows

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that extend diagonally into the dunes.

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At night, they hunt insects,

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waiting patiently for the telltale signs of dinner

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as it crosses the spider's domain.

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Elongated hairs called trichobothria

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lie in the antenna-like pedipalps and legs.

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These sensory hairs are stimulated by air currents

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and low frequency vibrations.

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The spider waits until the subtle tremblings of the sand

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signals its prey is nearby,

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then darts out to ambush the victim.

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During the day, dune spiders escape from the heat

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of the sun by staying underground,

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only coming out to repair or construct their layer.

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It's not easy to dig tunnels in the shifting sands,

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but the spider succeeds by lining the walls with silk.

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And it's at this point that the spider

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is at its most vulnerable.

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Their arch enemy is a pompilid wasp,

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a parasite with a predilection for laying its eggs

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inside the spider's body

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so the hatchlings have fresh and living meat to feed off.

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But all is not lost because this particular dune huntsman

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has a nifty escape plan.

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If its burrow happens to be on the side

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of a steep enough sand dune,

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it takes off and effectively invents the wheel.

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The spider rolls onto its side, tucks in its legs,

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and cartwheels down the slope,

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accelerating to a speed of more than one meter per second.

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That's the equivalent of a car

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traveling at 300 kilometers per hour.

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This species is not known as the wheel spider for nothing.

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(playful music)

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Brush turkeys seem to have embraced the idea of modern man,

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because in this bird's world,

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it's the male that does the housework

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and looks after the kids.

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Male turkeys build large mounds

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comprised of decomposing vegetation, leaf litter, and soil.

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The suitor with the best maintained mound gets the girl.

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Females lay their eggs and then leave,

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and it's left to the fathers to look after the young.

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As the decomposing vegetation produces heat,

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it incubates the eggs.

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Keeping the right temperature is vital

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for their offspring's survival.

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So males check the warmth of the composting

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by inserting their heads in a hole.

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To keep a constant 33 degrees Celsius,

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the turkey removes or adds layers to the mound as needed.

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(playful music)

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They can take the temperature

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by using highly acute heat sensors inside their upper bill.

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Without the brush turkey's bill thermometer,

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the embryos wouldn't develop.

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It's thanks to their super heat sense

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that a new generation is born.

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(dramatic music)

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The senses are the stars on "Animal Super Senses."

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We've learned digging deep doesn't stop animals

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from sensing their surroundings,

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and making the most of what the earth has to offer.

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Join us next time on "Animal Super Senses"

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to find out more incredible powers of animal perception.

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(dramatic music)