Dogs and Smell

If you ask someone what animal has the best sense of smell, chances are that most people will answer “Dogs”. Not a bad answer, though not quite right. At least two others are better.

 

 

Dogs have an amazing sense of smell. That's why we use dogs to track and find people who are lost, buried in avalanches, trapped in earthquake- or bomb-damaged buildings. We use dogs to sniff out illegal drugs, explosives, buried landmines, soil contaminants, animals of specific endangered species, black truffles, and even diseases. They couldn’t do it without their remarkable ability to smell. But what’s also significant is that dogs are so willing to be trained for these tasks. Some other candidates with great noses are less convenient and obliging. More on that, later.

Why are dogs are better at smelling than human?

·         Humans have 5-6 million smell receptor cells in our noses; dogs 100-300 million.

·         The area of the brain devoted to processing smells is 40 times larger in dogs than in humans. 

·         Dogs have a special organ — the “Jacobson’s Organ” devoted to processing smells. We don’t. 

·         As humans breathe in, we get new smells. As we breathe out, nothing. As dogs breathe out, their breath causes some turbulence which pulls new scents into the smelling area of their nostrils. 

·         Dogs can distinguish whether smells are coming from their left or right nostril. The difference of smell between the two nostrils lets them know the direction a smell is coming from. 

Professor Alexandra Horowitz, head of the Dog Cognition Lab at Columbia University summarizes a dog’s ability to smell: “while we might notice if our coffee has had a teaspoon of sugar added to it, a dog could detect a teaspoon of sugar in a million gallons of water, or two Olympic-sized pools worth.” Alexandra Horowitz has written a number of fascinating books about dog cognition, most recently The Year of the Puppy, and  Our Dogs, Ourselves.

Dogs can identify the intensity of a smell with incredible sensitivity. By smelling 5 footprints they know which are less intense and therefore older. From this they know which direction the person was walking.

 Scientists also believe that this is how dogs know when to expect owners back from work. If the owner has a regular routine and returns, say, 9 hours after leaving, the dog knows that when the owner’s smell has dissipated to a 9-hour-old level, it’s time for their return. Ingeniously, this hypothesis was tested by quietly reinforcing the owner’s scent during the day, by introducing clothing worn by the owner. Dogs who habitually waited at the front door at the right time, were fooled.

For dog owners it’s important to understand that dogs’ sense of the world is primarily through smell, not sight, as ours is. Your dog will be happier and better adjusted if you allow it to spend a lot of walking time following the interesting smells which are all around. And which you are unaware of. When we meet people, we naturally look at them to get a sense of who they are. Dogs smell each other to get that. Females tend to smell the front end of other dogs; males the back ends. By smelling they can tell the age, gender and health of the other dog. And more – like sexual attractiveness.  But while we need the person present to see that information, dogs can smell that information by sniffing where the dog has been. When dogs sniff a tree, hydrant or telephone pole, they’re identifying who has been there. And when they pee on it themselves, they’re leaving a message to say “I was here”.

By the way, our vision is not just better than dogs’ — it’s better than most of the animal world. Eagles can see more acutely than we can (“eagle eyes” is an apt expression), but few others even come close.

So what animals out-smell dogs? In hindsight it’s not surprising. Elephants’ noses are astonishing, not just for being long, but for being sensitive.

Elephants have been known to smell water from a distance of 20 km. They were tested for their ability to smell after it was noticed that they avoided land mines in Angola. Elephants can smell the difference between people from two Kenyan tribes: the Masai, who traditionally hunt elephants and the Kamba, who don’t. Elephants have been tested on their ability to tell, by smell, the quantity of sunflower seeds in a bucket with a perforated lid. The elephants consistently choose the fuller container.

In a really interesting experiment, described by Ed Yonge in his fascinating book An Immense World, scientists tested the ability of elephants to tell the identity of other elephants by the smell of their urine. The scientists would follow a herd of elephants and wait for one of them to pee. Then they would scoop up the pee-soaked earth, guess where the herd was headed, and dump that earth in the expected path. When the elephants reached that area, they would smell the pee-soaked earth. Those elephants who were walking ahead of the donor of the specimen were clearly confused by it. It was obvious that they knew whose pee they were smelling, but that individual was behind them, so couldn’t have just peed in front of them.

The other animal that can out-smell a dog is a bear. There are lots of stories about bears being able to smell animal carcasses from huge distances (some say up to 32 km), and male polar bears have been known to trek 100 miles (160 km) following the scent of a sexually receptive female.

But for very practical reasons we do prefer using dogs to help us with smell-related tasks, rather than elephants or bears.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Protecting Elephants in Zambia

Protecting Elephants in Zambia
By Margriet Ruurs
photos by Margriet Ruurs

If you visit Africa, you need to go on safari!
So when I toured international schools across Africa, I knew I’d want to see wildlife in the place where it belongs: the vast wilderness of the African continent.

Driving across the Serengeti I spotted a lion crouched low in the grass – both painted orange by the rising sun.
Seeing a white rhino in the Ngorogoro Crater was iconic and drove home the need to preserve this natural legacy for generations to come.

But perhaps the highlight was a visit to Zambia’s National Parks. Wildlife in Zambia is abundant. Even on the ride from the tiny airport to the lodge in a National Park, we saw the "big five" and more. Africa's big five animals include lions, leopards, elephants,  African buffalo, and rhinoceros.

During a walking safari, we learned about reading tracks and other signs. “A cheetah walked here about two hours ago, carrying an impala,” our guide would ‘read’ with confidence. But he also told us about poachers and how elephant populations are dwindling. We met with a poacher to hear his side of the story. And ended up financing a system whereby poachers who have served a jail sentence wear ankle bracelets that allow for tracking them to make sure they don’t sneak off again during the night.

And then we met Aaron. A young man who grew up in a poaching community, he explained how his family went hungry as herds of elephants came through his village, trampling rice crops and eating the mangos. How poaching allowed for a bit of income in a place without jobs. And how he had never known that elephants would be endangered. He had been forced to drop out of school to help his family’s income. Elephants were the enemy.

At the elephant orphanage, elephants bond into new families.

But one day, Aaron was involved in the rescue of a baby elephant at the resort where he had a menial job. That’s when he met people working for Game Rangers International and the Lilyai Elephant Orphanage outside Lusaka, Zambia.

“I thought there was black magic involved,” Aaron said when he first saw people working with elephants. But, upon visiting the orphanage to check up on the rescued baby, he not only learned about their work but was offered a job. Now Aaron is a skilled elephant caretaker who helps to save the lives of young, orphaned elephants who will later be released into the wild again. He also speaks to Zambian youths in schools about the need for preservation. “Tourists bring more resources than poaching,” he now knows.

You can read many more details about this true story in:
The Elephant Keeper, Caring For Orphaned Elephants in Zambia
by Margriet Ruurs
Kids Can Press
ISBN  978-1771385619
The book encourages schools and individuals to ‘adopt’ an orphaned elephant.
Check this website for details: https://www.gamerangersinternational.org

The Elephant Keeper

By Margriet Ruurs

I am happy to share a new book with you that has been long in the making.


In 2014 I was lucky enough to travel to Zambia. There, I visited an elephant orphanage and learned much about how hard people work to help save an endangered species.

Elephants are in danger of illegal poaching. Because there are still countries in the world where people wants trinkets made from ivory, there are still poachers willing to kill these majestic animals.

When a mother elephant is killed, usually for her tusks, her baby elephant is left to die. Without her nursing and nurturing, the infant is not able to care for itself yet. In Zambia, Game Rangers International has trained staff that will rescue and transport the baby elephant.

The staff at Lilayi Elephant Orphanage have developed a milk formula and other pertinent care that gives the orphaned elephant a fighting chance.

Zambezi came to the orphanage at a young age after he was founded nearly drowning in a resort's pool near the Zambezi River in southern Zambia.

Aaron is the caretaker who was offered a job after rescuing Zambezi. To him, elephants had been the enemy that destroys crops in his village. But Aaron learned to care for elephants, to respect and to love them. Now he is a valuable caretaker who spends most of his waking hours with his little charges.

The elephants live in the protected forest and compound near Lusaka, until they are old enough to be released into the wild. They learn to forage and to act as elephants and form new family bonds with other orphaned elephants. They will live out their lives in the protected woods of Kafue National Park.

Find out how you can help - not only buy making sure you never buy anything made from ivory, but also by "adopting" a baby elephant. The $65.- US will pay for the elephant' food, milk, medicine and upkeep. What better gift for a child's birthday or a friend's Christmas gift than a baby elephant! You will receive photos and regular email updates!

http://gamerangersinternational.org/index.php/adopt-an-elephant/

Kids Can Press

978-1-77138-561-9 | Oct 3, 2017

List Price: USD $18.99, CAD $19.99

4-color  8 x 10 48 pages

Grades: 3 To 7 / Ages: 8 to 12

REVIEWS

“A moving and unforgettable true story ...”

— Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review, August 2017

“... Ruurs's narrative builds a strong emotional connection between readers and the subject---this is a tale designed to pull at the heartstrings of readers.”

— School Library Journal, September 2017

Elephants For Lunch

By Margriet Ruurs

I am in Zambia, Africa - on my first safari, in hopes of seeing big game in their own, natural environment.

An alternative to a game drive is to take a walking safari. Does a walking safari mean that you can run into lions?! In a way, it does.

So the guide takes us to an area where he feels we are unlikely to run into anything too big or too dangerous. It is not a long, arduous hike, but an interesting stroll through the African bush. The guide reads the ground like the pages of an open book.

“Look.” He points. “A hyena walked here. He was not in a rush because only the indentation of two middle claws shows.”

He also points out where baboons dined on the fibre of elephant dung. We see gorgeous round clay pots, broken open. They are the large balls that a dung beetle rolls through the mud.



Our guide shows us intricately woven weaverbird nests that always hang on the west side of a tree.

There’s even a bird called a tailorbird that stitches leaves together with real stitches.

A weaverbird nest.

We follow trails made by elephants and hippos, see a large flock of bright green love birds that look like the leaves of a tree flying off.

One afternoon, we have lunch at Track & Trail River Camp. They’ve set a little table for us and when I look up I spot an elephant. Then three more. They come within metres. From the safety of the kitchen door, we watch as they stroll past, right next to the bar.

We visit Chipembele Wildlife Centre, an impressive visitors’ centre set up and run by a British couple. They were both police officers in England, obsessed by Africa. Seventeen years ago they moved here, built a house in the bush and now educate African children on the importance of wildlife. On the side, he catches poachers.

 We found an elephant tusk on the ground.

He tells us about one poacher who has just been released from prison. Through some local contacts, we manage to make a date with the guy and spend an afternoon chatting with him. What motivates a poacher? Money.

The (ex)poacher has nine children and no job. The 70% unemployment rate in Zambia means no work, no income. So how does a father provide for his family? How does he put food on the table?

The easiest way is by poaching. Edwin told us he built his own guns and would spend the night in the bush, hunting impala, buffalo, kudo and more. He ate the meat but mostly sold it.

He got caught. At some point he got offered a job but screwed up and went back to poaching. He ended up in jail. Jail in Zambia is not for the faint of heart. “1,500 men in one cell,” he says. People right next to him died of suffocation. One meal a day of a kind of uncooked porridge. It was a wonder that he survived the year. But now he swears he will never poach again. Only time will tell. We hope he will find a job. His skills as a tracker are probably unparalleled. And he now seems to agree: wildlife needs to be protected. Wildlife brings tourists, and tourists bring money.

We also understand the problems caused by free roaming wildlife. Herds of elephants trample and eat the crops of corn. They break into grain storage units. Governments try to help villagers by building stronger storage units. They supply villagers with ‘chili bombs’ and help them to plant chili hedges to discourage elephants.

In Mfuwe, the village nearest the National Park, people have lots of trouble with elephants. “They come through our village at night and eat all of the mangos,” our driver tells us, “but people in the next village can sleep outside without fear of being trampled.”

I think about this as I fall asleep to the music of cicadas and the loud ‘snoring’ of hippos just outside our chalet along the river. That night we have the very first rainfall of the new rainy season - the first rain in seven or eight months. It will soon transform the region into a lush green forest with wide rivers and newborn animals. Animals, who will hopefully continue to live in their natural habitat without being brought to the brink of extinction.

Photos by Margriet Ruurs.