Sensitivity
Sensitivity
Senses are very important.
Your senses let you know what is going on in the world around you.
Humans have five senses: hearing, sight, smell, touch and taste. They are controlled by five sense organs: the ears, eyes, nose, skin and tongue.
Some animals rely on some senses more than others.
Hunting animals, like the cheetah, need very good eyesight to find their prey.
Nocturnal animals often have very large eyes to maximise the amount they see at night, but also rely heavily on their sense of hearing.
The platypus has very poor eyesight.
To find food, it uses its bill to grub around in mud to find shrimp and shell fish.
The platypus' bill is filled with sensitive electro-receptors that pick up electrical impulses given off by the movement of its prey.
Snakes have amazing senses.
They actually smell with their tongues – they flick their tongues in and out to taste and smell the air around them. Some snakes can detect the heat of other animals around them. Snakes also hear by sensing vibrations on the ground with their lower jaws. Pythons are heat-seekers that can feel slight changes in the temperature around them - allowing them to find their prey in the dark!
