# Which animal has the best these three senses: Sight, Hearing and Smell? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 11, 2005, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210 "2005-01-11T14:39:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210/21 "2005-01-12T04:22:25Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > Nothing in the animal kingdom can beat the dog for smell. > > Sure the shark can smell blood very well. > > But can it smell chili? > > The dog can not only smell chili…it can smell each ingredient. Put a shark in an environment where it could smell a coherent bowl of chili, and I think it would have bigger problems than smelling each ingredient. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210/22 "2005-01-12T04:27:14Z")
> [@Speaker for the Dead](#): > > Put a shark in an environment where it could smell a coherent bowl of chili, and I think it would have bigger problems than smelling each ingredient. Agreed. But the point is that the shark has developed a sense of smell for just one molecule. Blood. Whereas the dog can smell many more molecules. Geez…Dogs can smell cancer. I’d hate to have a dogs sense of smell. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210/23 "2005-01-12T19:21:54Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > Agreed. > > But the point is that the shark has developed a sense of smell for just one molecule. > > Blood. Do you have any cite for that? I have heard of sharks being attracted by urine, faeces and other such things in reading about surviving shp wrecks, and so read the advice to throw such deitrus far away from a raft so as not to attract sharks to the raft. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210/24 "2005-01-12T19:34:27Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > Nothing in the animal kingdom can beat the dog for smell. Except a bear. From [this site](http://www.americanbear.org/senses.htm): > [@](#): > > Is it true that a bear’s sense of smell is 7 times greater than that of a bloodhound? > > Indeed it is. There is perhaps no other animal with a keener sense of smell. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210/25 "2005-01-12T19:43:52Z")
> [@](#): > > As far as smell goes, we are damn near “blind” compared to a dog or most other mammals. I don’t think we’re in the running. Can you prove that? I’ve heard speculation that our sense of smell actually isn’t too bad, but because of our excellent sight (certainly as compared to most other mammals) we just don’t use smell very often. Feynman once did some experiments with this, and found that with training, he was able to determine whether a book had been handled by a human, and by which human, by scent alone. Which is a lot better than most folks think our sense of smell is. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210/26 "2005-01-12T22:11:57Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Can you prove that? I’ve heard speculation that our sense of smell actually isn’t too bad, but because of our excellent sight (certainly as compared to most other mammals) we just don’t use smell very often. Feynman once did some experiments with this, and found that with training, he was able to determine whether a book had been handled by a human, and by which human, by scent alone. Which is a lot better than most folks think our sense of smell is. We may have better capabilities than is sometimes assumed, but they are still pathetic compared to many other mammals. We have only about 5-6 million olfactory receptors in our olfactory epithelium, while a dog has more than 200 million. (These were the most frequent figures given in the sites I checked, although one said humans have 40 million, while dogs have one billion - but all agreed that dogs have 30-40 times more receptors than humans do.) According to **Whack-a-mole’s** quote above, human visual acuity is about 2.5 times better than that of a dog. Based on the figures above it’s reasonable to assume that a dog’s sense of smell would be more than 30 times more acute than our own. So a dog’s sense of smell is better than ours by a much greater ratio than our vision is better than theirs. ---
**Author:** ![dartvader48](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/45deac/32.png) [@dartvader48](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dartvader48)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2016, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210/27 "2016-12-06T18:41:24Z")
from what i know, Foxes have the best of all three, great night vision, nose that as good as or even better than canine, and so are their ears. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2016, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210/28 "2016-12-06T19:14:33Z")
Best hearing? Are we talking about the lowest threshold of hearing, or the widest frequency response? The latter apparently goes to the [greater wax moth,](https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=best+hearing+animal) which can hear frequencies up to 300 KHz. [Frequency ranges for other animals are here.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing_range#In_animals) It’s harder to find sources regarding which animal has the lowest threshold of hearing at any given frequency. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2016, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210/29 "2016-12-06T20:06:30Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > Except a bear. From [this site](http://www.americanbear.org/senses.htm): I imagine that a drug sniffing bear in an airport would be awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2016, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210/30 "2016-12-06T20:17:14Z")
But which animal has the best memory? I’ll bet that none of these animals can remember what their super-senses saw, smelled or heard 11 years ago. Elephants rool. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2016, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210/31 "2016-12-06T20:35:22Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > I imagine that a drug sniffing bear in an airport would be awesome. Especially after he got a snootful of cocaine.:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210/32 "2016-12-07T08:19:40Z")
> [@dartvader48](#): > > from what i know, Foxes have the best of all three, great night vision, nose that as good as or even better than canine, and so are their ears. Foxes are canines ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210/33 "2016-12-07T10:28:12Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Foxes are canines Or, just to be a little more accurate (taxonomy is not an exact science), they are members of the family “Canidae” along with wolves. jackals, dingoes, African wild dogs and domestic dogs. They split off genetically some time earlier from a common ancestor but of course share most of the general traits of all the above. Anyway, pesky taxonomy aside, what we would consider “canine” traits would surely make various fox species a good shout for best overall, certainly foxes hearing is particularly acute although smell and eyesight is less so. What we need is a natural world “top trumps” deck and see which card becomes the equivalent of the highly prized Shelby Cobra or Countach (I’m showing my age now) ---
**Author:** ![Orwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/dfb087/32.png) [@Orwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orwell)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210/34 "2016-12-07T14:56:20Z")
Funny, I was thinking about an off-shoot of this question while deer hunting last week. Deer have very good noses, and can also hear quite well. Both allow them to sense predators of two- and four-legged varieties. Their vision, however, seems to be fairly bad in terms of acuity. They can readily see movement, but can look right at a human and not figure out what he is. But make the slightest movement and they run. I guess I can assume that both prey and predator animals have good olfactory senses for opposite purposes. The former to smell when a person, bear, coyote or fox is coming, and the latter to smell when something to eat is nearby. It does surprise me a bit to realize how poor humans are at smelling compared to most animals. Same with hearing for the most part, I think. Most four-legged mammals can hear much better than we can. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210/35 "2016-12-07T15:31:47Z")
I don’t know how well bears see or hear, but with no reason to believe they are sub-par at those activities, their smell would make them a great contender among land mammals. I can’t recall where I heard it, but I think I’ve heard that dolphins don’t smell so good (or maybe not at all). Their hearing is of course excellent, but my WAG is that their vision is sub-par. Turkey vultures (cited upthread) would have to have pretty crummy hearing to lose out, given their excellent eyes and noses. Although I wonder if their noses are extremely sensitive for a narrow range of chemicals. Dogs’ noses are better than humans in both sensitivity and range. I’ve got no cites for any of this at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210/36 "2016-12-07T15:55:31Z")
BTW, when I said sub-par, I mean sub-par for average mammals, not humans (who have excellent vision for a mammal, but sub-par hearing and smelling). Birds of course have extraordinary vision, but most don’t smell so good. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210/37 "2016-12-07T16:58:58Z")
The antelope will rank very high in hearing and sight, smell I am not so sure while other animals in this same family do have a good sense of smell. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210/38 "2016-12-07T18:08:05Z")
Is a shark’s sense for blood smell, or is it taste? ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210/39 "2016-12-07T19:43:22Z")
I guess it also depends upon what you mean by best eyesight, because you can consider definition, spectral range, sensitivity to light levels. Here is one contender in certain aspects of vision > **[Mantis shrimp have the world's best eyes – but why?](http://theconversation.com/mantis-shrimp-have-the-worlds-best-eyes-but-why-17577)** > > As humans, we experience an amazing world of colour, but what can other animals see? Some see much more than us, but how they use this vision is largely unknown. We see what we see because our eyes have… This creature can differentiate very narrow frequencies, and yet has an incredibly wide spectrum of vision, along with an ability to detect polarised light, and can even rotate its eyes planar dimension to the light source to use light polarisation. Also, it may be surprising at first, but Goldfish have an extremely wide spectrum of vision, and are likely the only candidate to rival the Mantis Shrimp. One reason that goldfish have such sensitive and wide spectrum is that they have evolved to live in brackish water, light levels are low and many frequencies do not penetrate such water well, and many other animals display bioluminescence at a level that we humans cannot detect, but Goldfish can, and this can be triggered by predators producing underwater bow pressure waves - which gives the humble goldfish a significant advantage. > **[Goldfish - incredible eyesight](http://animal-facts-trivia.blogspot.com/2008/09/goldfish-incredible-eyesight.html)** > > A goldfish is the only animal that can see infrared and ultraviolet light. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Actinoptery... ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210/40 "2016-12-07T19:55:36Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Is a shark’s sense for blood smell, or is it taste? Even in people the difference is not that clear. Most of what people think of as taste when they eat is coming in through the olfactory senses. The only true tastes we have are sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and umame. All those subtle flavors that you read about in wine reviews are from the aromas being smelled as the wine is swished in the mouth and swallowed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animal-has-the-best-these-three-senses-sight-hearing-and-smell/284210.md?page=3)