Elephants appear to be super sniffers

Everyone knows that elephants trunks are very strong and useful. A great example of this is that they can lift objects with their trunk and also spit water out of it. Researchers looked at bush elephants (Laxodonta Africana). These are the largest of Africa’s two species. They usually live in grassy areas hence to why we call them bush elephants.

 Did you know that elephants are amazing sniffers? Elephants have around 2,000 scent-sensing genes. Isn’t that crazy? Other good sniffers like rats have around 1,200 genes for scent-sensing, blood hounds and other dogs have around 800 of these different genes and humans have around 40 of them. Elephants use their great trunks to smell predators from far away. They can ‘’find’’ people from the two ethnic groups living near them in east Africa that are trying to hunt them. That helps the elephants defend themselves and helps them know when the people are close. Scents play a HUGE role in the elephant’s behavior. Example: the elephant can communicate aggression via scent.

These large mammals may be the world’s best smellers!

https://student.societyforscience.org/article/elephants-appear-be-super-sniffers 

Questions:

1. How do you think that elephants can communicate via scent?

2. Do you think that it would be a good thing to have a trunk that can smell as well as an elephant’s? Explain your answer.

Is the Orca a whale?

The Orca is actually categorized as a dolphin, this is because dolphins are a sub-category of a sub-category of whales, that means that all dolphins are whales, but it is necessary to note that not all whales are dolphins. The Orca (or Killer whale), scientifically is a dolphin, the largest of the dolphins.

It is a member of a family called delphinidae (a dolphin family), in this family you will find the bottle-nose, common, and Hector's dolphins, in fact, Hector's dolphin and the Orca are alike.

 

Killer whales are found in all oceans, from the frigid Arctic and Antarctic regions to tropical seas. They have a diverse diet, although individual populations often specialize in particular types of prey. Some feed exclusively on fish, while others hunt marine mammals (like pinnipeds) and even large whales.

 

Killer whales are highly social; some populations are composed of matrilineal family groups which are the most stable of any animal species. Their sophisticated hunting techniques and vocal behaviors, which are often specific to a particular group and passed across generations, have been described as manifestations of culture.

 

The difference between an orca and a whale is that whales have baleen which they use to sieve food into their mouths and an orca and dolphins have teeth.

 

 Article:

 

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/04/killer-whales-are-actually-dolphins/

 

 

Questions:

 

1. How will you classify the Orca; as a whale or as a dolphin? Why?

 

2. You know about another animal that can be classify in two families?