Science of Senses

An animal's eyes provide it with information about its encounters with other animals and its habitat. This book is filled with important and exciting facts about how animals see, such as deer, eagles, dragonflies, cats, and squids. It includes how animal eyes are constructed, how they work in different environments, and how different animals use sight to stay safe, find food, and experience the world around them. Comparisons between animal eyesight and human eyesight are also included. Photographs, diagrams, and maps make this book even more exciting and informative.

The sense of touch brings the world closer to us, and the same is true for the animals on Earth. This book explains how animals explore their world through the sense of touch, with skin, fur, biological systems, and more. A variety of animals are profiled, including butterflies, cats, monkeys, dogs, earthworms, and even humans, with specific examples of how feeling helps mammals, insects, and people find food, navigate the world, and stay safe from predators. Photographs, diagrams, and maps add to the information and make this book appealing to young readers.

From sniffing out a meal to finding a mate, species throughout the animal kingdom use their sense of smell every day. While most animals use their noses to smell, such as cats, dogs, and humans, others use different parts of their bodies. For example, bees use their antennae, snakes use their tongues, and butterflies use their legs. A good sense of smell can allow animals to survive in dark, underground habitats. It can help others locate food sources in the vast oceans or the driest of deserts. In this book, readers can find out about how animals' and people's senses of smell work and why this sense is essential for most creatures' everyday lives.

The sense of taste helps animals determine what is delicious, and what is deadly. Animals have evolved a wide variety of taste preferences and abilities. For instance, an octopus has ten thousand taste buds on each one of its arms' suckers; a bison has a great knack for using taste to avoid toxic plants while grazing, and gorillas and chimps like sweet-tasting food. With interesting, easy-to-understand text and vivid pictures, this book explores the many ways animals use taste to perceive their world. The text is easily accessible, with informative sidebars and fact boxes to hold young readers' interest. Maps and diagrams stimulate curiosity, while a glossary helps build vocabulary. Readers will be fascinated comparing animals' sense of taste to their own.

Animals rely on their sense of hearing to locate predators, find food, and sense danger. This book explores a variety of animal ears and describes how they work and how they help animals hear. From the super-sharp hearing of an owl to grasshoppers that hear through their legs, this book is full of fascinating facts that capture the reader's attention while providing scientific information and offering an opportunity to compare animal hearing to the readers' own. Photographs, diagrams, and maps add to the learning and make this book even more appealing for young learners.