Humans see millions of hues… but we don’t see everything! For humans, ultraviolet and infrared light are invisible to the naked eye. Some animals, however, can actually see these kinds of light.

Fish like goldfish, carps and piranhas can see infrared light; this is the only kind of light that penetrates the murky waters they live in. And certain flowers and animals display invisible patterns that reflect ultraviolet light. These patterns show bees, butterflies and hummingbirds the flowers which are right for them.

Many animals can hear sounds that are so high (ultrasound) or so low (infrasound) that our ears cannot detect them. Ground squirrels warn each other of danger by emitting ultrasound that is inaudible to their enemies. Bats and dolphins benefit from ultrasound because the echo allows them to ‘see’ obstacles or prey.

Infrasound allows animals like elephants and whales to communicate with each other over long distances. The infrasound that whales emit can easily travel over 1000 km through the ocean!

How far do your cries travel? And can you catch as many moths as the bat?

Your sense of taste tests out the food in your mouth, so that you can decide: swallow it or spit it out! The taste buds on our tongue detect five basic flavours: sweetness, saltiness, sourness, bitterness and umami. These tastes tell us something about our food. Sweetness means that the food contains a lot of energy; bitterness is often a warning sign that a substance is poisonous; umami means that the food is high in protein; etc.

Animals don’t always taste the same flavours as us. Cats, for example, cannot taste sweetness. They almost  always eat meat, and meat contains no sugar.

The sense of temperature is the least well known and the least precise of our senses. We notice if our surroundings are too hot or too cold, but without a thermometer, we can never accurately tell what temperature it is. Certain animals are a lot better at this than we are. Some snakes can perceive temperature differences of 0.003 °C!

This allows the ball python to localise its warm-blooded prey even in the dark. And the mallee fowl uses its beak to determine the temperature of its nest. This way, he can keep his nest at a constant 33 °C for a period of three months. Otherwise, its eggs won’t hatch!

The needle of a compass always points north. This way, we can use the Earth’s magnetic field to find the right direction.

Some animals have a magnetic sense that works like an internal compass: it helps wood mice to find their way back to their underground burrows; loggerhead turtles to swim back to the beach where they hatched to lay their own eggs; carrier pigeons to find their way home; compass termites to build termite hills that point to the north, etc.