Walking through town, a person hears a noisy bus, feels the sun’s heat, smells and tastes a vendor’s pretzel, and sees a friend approaching—using all five senses. All animals have similar senses, but most have developed a particularly keen sense or two to match their specific survival needs. Moles, which live in darkness underground, have little use for good eyesight. They rely instead on a well-developed sense of touch to find food. Aboveground, a jumping spider’s exceptional sense is sight. It depends on vision to spot prey. Underwater, a shark needs its superior sense of smell to follow the scent of a fishy morsel.

Check out some animal super senses at right.