Monday, May 24, 2010

Fun Fact of the Day 5/24


Despite your inclination to perhaps state "Blood hound" when prompted to give an example of an animal with an acute sense of smell, the land animals with even keener noses are bears. Yes, the furry forest denizens we all love have an olfactory lobe five times larger than that of a human brain, making their brain effectively "wired" to smell. Their extremely long snouts also assist in this ability, as they provide a large amount of surface area for receptor cells which can pick up even minute particles in the air. They also have tiny muscles in the nose which allow them to manipulate it as daintily as I might wiggle my index finger. In fact, polar bears have been known to detect deceased seal carcasses from as far as 30 kilometers away, across miles of frozen sea. Black bears, which are frequently the species most commonly associated with stealing food from campers, are believed to be able to detect even food stored inside a vehicle from a long distance. Mathematically, they can smell around 2,100 times better than you can. Neato, no?
(Heidi, I figured you might like a bear fact today)

1 comment:

  1. Ha yes, I did like the bear fact. Why does blogspot not have a 'like' option? :(

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