New sense discovered in dog noses: the ability to detect heat

[sandensea]

Dogs’ noses just got a bit more amazing. Not only are they up to 100 million times more sensitive than ours, they can sense weak thermal radiation—the body heat of mammalian prey, a new study reveals.

The find helps explain how canines with impaired sight, hearing, or smell can still hunt successfully.

“It’s a fascinating discovery,” says Marc Bekoff, an ethologist, expert on canine sniffing, and professor emeritus at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who was not involved in the study.

“[It] provides yet another window into the sensory worlds of dogs’ highly evolved cold noses.”

The ability to sense weak, radiating heat is known in only a handful of animals: black fire beetles, certain snakes, and one species of mammal, the common vampire bat, all of which use it to hunt prey.

At: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/new-sense-discovered-dog-noses-ability-detect-heat

The nose knows.

[Harker]

1. I'd like to know why my dog daughter Tosca...

a three-year-old Siberian Husky acts more like a hound as far as her nose is concerned.

[sandensea]

2. Let me guess: she sticks it under your arm while you're eating?

[Harker]

5. She'd like to do that.

Huskies tend to walk with their heads held high, brightly engaged with their surroundings.

T is very intensely focused on the lingering smells of what has been, her nose glued to the ground.

Nice pic!

[sandensea]

6. Aww. She sounds wonderful.

And I'm glad you liked the photo. I couldn't help it, having had a Basset for 13 years (he passed away a few years ago).

They're characters.

[Harker]

7. She's a delight!

I've known a few Bassets. All good souls. You were lucky to have had each other.

I grew up with a Beagle I picked at age 2 in 1961. I was 18 and about to graduate high school when he died.

Tosca is the first dog I've had in my life since then. In between was a parade of cats, often many at a time.

There's no need to self-identify as an exclusive dog or cat person, as some do.

[sandensea]

8. Pets really do brighter your days

I haven't had one since my Shar Pei passed on a couple of years ago.

It was so sudden and unexpected, as she was as strong as an ox; 'familial syndrome', the vet told me.

My biggest regret: not having taken more pictures. Always have that camera/phone ready!

[dawg day]

3. We had a blind dog next door who once got a taste of our cat's food.

There was a bin of it in the garage. Every time the garage door was up, that darned dog would dash into the garage and go unerringly to that bin of catfood and grab a mouthful.

He just followed his nose... from a house away. It was pretty impressive. (Well, the cat was really annoyed.)

[Kablooie]

4. Guess that's how they know another dog is in heat.

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