Tell me wonders…
My dog's world is dominated by smell and not sight like ours. When a dog goes for a walk, he wants to explore, he wants to sniff and do it at his own pace and with a different purpose.
They can spend time and time sniffing a little piece of land.
It contains a lot of interesting information. If we stop them because we want them to walk, we make their lives a little sad. We should not impose our human haste on them, sniffing is part of their way of understanding the world. And look at the catfish.
It's all language.
We taste with our tongue, but many animals do it with other parts of the body. Catfish have taste buds all over their bodies to taste the flavor of their prey.
Beetles attracted to fire?
Most animals flee from fire, but there is a type of beetle that runs towards forest fires that it perceives many kilometers away because it lays its eggs in the burned forest.
Does hearing infrasound make you different?
The infrasounds emitted by elephants and whales, for example, inaudible to us, allow them to communicate over great distances, and this changes the concept of a group. When we see a lone whale, is she really alone?
There are species that coordinate using sonar.
Yes, like dolphins, who use it not only to know where the fish are but to coordinate attack patterns, that's what you get when you combine an extraordinary sense with an impressive brain.
Do dolphins see our organs?
It's another unique quality that underwater sonar has, where sound passes through flesh, dolphins are like living X-rays.
They say that plants dance to the music of insects.
Plants are full of tiny insects that vibrate their bodies to communicate with each other through the vibration of the stems and leaves.
Incredible.
What seems incredible to me is that when we put a microphone to that vibration, it turns out that they are very complex and mysterious sounds that look like musical instruments. The plants that surround us are full of that melody, that song of the insects.
Is there no shared way of feeling the world among all species?
There are meanings that are quite universal. As humans rely heavily on sight, we tend to see it as the most important sense, but there are many creatures that do not see. Sight is not a universal experience, but smell and touch are.
They are some of the oldest and most primordial senses.
Even bacteria, the first living organisms, are able to smell and perceive chemicals around them, to touch and feel pressure and movement.
An immense world.
All creatures live in their own sensory world, it is what we call Umwelt, the cocktail of senses, images, sounds, smells and textures that each organism is capable of perceiving. It is a wonderful concept, it is a cure for humility.
Does each species live in its bubble?
That's right, each one perceives a very small fraction of what the world is. The human Umwelt is neither predominant nor superior to that of the rest of the species, but is one more among the incomprehensible multiplicity that the biosphere treasures.
Do we live trapped and isolated in our sensory bubble?
We can escape and see the world bigger, more beautiful and more magical than we thought by using one of our greatest gifts: imagination. When I think about what my dog smells, I see my neighborhood differently, and when I think about those plant insects and their music, I understand that my garden is full of wonders.
Does the world shape us or do living beings shape the world?
Both things, animals that live underground, a world without light, tend to lose their eyes, but the senses also allow animals to change the world.
For example?
Bees are able to distinguish many shades of colors in flowers, but the flowers postdate bees and their ancestors, meaning that flower colors evolved to attract the bee's eye. Through our perception of the world we also change it.
We believe we are at the top of the natural hierarchy, do you believe that too?
One of the great lessons of biology is that we are not on top of the world but on an equality with all the creatures that exist.
