# How Do The Senses Of Other Great Apes Compare To Those Of H Sapiens? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Tags:** science-math\ **Created:** [April 7, 2024, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-the-senses-of-other-great-apes-compare-to-those-of-h-sapiens/999981 "2024-04-07T20:34:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2024, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-the-senses-of-other-great-apes-compare-to-those-of-h-sapiens/999981/1 "2024-04-07T20:34:31Z")
I know that, as regards eyesight, some birds leave us in the dust. Dogs’ sense of smell is exponential stronger than ours. Prey animals (such as deer) can hear us coming from a mile away. And so on. How are the senses of other great apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, etc.) compared to ours? Also, do other great apes shit where they stand? Or do they try to do it in some semblance of privacy and/or where other interested parties can’t readily see it (like cats and burying theirs)? ---
**Author:** ![Retzbu\_Tox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/retzbu_tox/32/11829_2.png) [@Retzbu\_Tox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Retzbu_Tox)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2024, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-the-senses-of-other-great-apes-compare-to-those-of-h-sapiens/999981/2 "2024-04-08T15:59:47Z")
An old article from the American Psychological Association suggests chimpanzees have similar visual acuity to humans, and can hear some higher frequency sounds than humans. There are probably other and newer articles out there which could be Googled up. [https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1970-16273-001](https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1970-16273-001) ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-the-senses-of-other-great-apes-compare-to-those-of-h-sapiens/999981/3 "2024-04-09T02:57:47Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Dogs’ sense of smell is exponential stronger than ours. Dogs’ sense of smell is certainly better than that of humans, but it’s probably not as stupendously better as is commonly believed. Dogs and humans have different strengths in their sense of smell. > **[In Some Ways, Your Sense of Smell Is Actually Better Than a Dog’s](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/you-actually-smell-better-dog-180963391/)** > > Human noses are especially attuned to picking up odors in bananas, urine and human blood ---
**Author:** ![Retzbu\_Tox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/retzbu_tox/32/11829_2.png) [@Retzbu\_Tox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Retzbu_Tox)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2024, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-the-senses-of-other-great-apes-compare-to-those-of-h-sapiens/999981/4 "2024-04-10T17:04:03Z")
After looking for articles comparing human senses to those of chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans, the consensus seems to be that color vision and night vision are all similar. For hearing, the human auditory range is tweaked a bit toward our vocal range to optimize verbal communication, so our high frequency hearing is poorer. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2024, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-the-senses-of-other-great-apes-compare-to-those-of-h-sapiens/999981/5 "2024-04-10T17:32:53Z")
Apes and Old World monkeys have _comparable_ color vision to humans. New World monkeys are interesting - most are the equivalent of human color blind (red-yellow-green appear similar, blue appears different). Exceptions are that the howler monkeys have human-like vision, and **females** in certain species are evolving full color vision. I think it’s something like 1/3 of females in some species have both the genetic and behavioral ability to see similar colors to us. Some species like night monkeys can’t see color at all. I’m not sure I’d say deer have exceptional hearing, they hear similar to us (better at high frequencies). What they have is external ears that can be moved to focus on sounds. They rely on their sense of smell quite a bit.