by Vadim Osadchi

Created on: September 30, 2007

Although animals interact using the very same senses humans are accustomed to, their control of the senses comes in a wider variety of degrees. We can typically tell our own people apart by eyesight alone. In the vast animal world, this method isn't always as effective. Animal senses must come blended or tuned to levels for beyond those of humans in order to identify and set apart.

1. Smell

Our own widely successful perfume and cologne industries just hint at the powers of scent. To animals the game of smell is something entirely different. To them, scent is an almost revered stimulus often setting apart friend from foe.

In an insect world, females are often known for their uniquely strong smells, made up of a mixture from pheromone substances aimed at attracting those of opposite sex.
A male butterfly will dutifully follow a female just by her smell, identifying her as one from an own species. Yet, the odor and chemical mixtures emitted from a female of a neighboring species works to drive him away.

Many birds identify their young by scent alone. Contamination of this certain smell routinely results in a baby's exile from the mother's nest.

2. Hearing

Using special code carried by song or call, animals use hearing to distinguish even those of separate packs or colonies.
An animal's amazing knack of hearing is due to high eardrum sensitivity, allowing animals like the bat, to which eyesight isn't a ready possibility, a way of following echo bounces for location discovery.

Both dogs and cats too have acute hearing abilities, able to pick up things that a human's ears can't even register. Using this highly advanced sense, wolves often use coded howls to set packs and pack leaders apart.
The hearing of dolphins exceeds far beyond most, allowing them a coded kind of song, typically transmitted from miles apart, of their own.

3. Taste and Touch

To many animals, insects for a large part, the taste and touch senses often go hand in hand. Humans may deem these two of least importance for recognition purposes. The ant, as one, who uses antennae and taste membranes to commune by way of literal touch and taste, would be found with an opposite opinion.

Mammals in particular often see this sensory duo as near useless. Some, like dogs, whose lickings actually serve as an identification taste system, could do without, yet still find some use with the senses. Other animals like those of the cat families also make use of tongue grooming for recognition.

4. Sight

Sight is often our primary

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