Of all animals on Earth, bears are supposed to have the sharpest sense of smell. A bear’s sense of smell is 2100 times better than that of a human. [Imagine a bear passing by a garbage dump! Poor thing!] Surprisingly, the bear’s brain size is one third of that of a human. But the area that controls the sense of smell is 5 times larger. Bears use this keen sense to find food and mates, to avoid enemies and keep track of cubs. Naturalists say that a bear can smell an animal carcass 20 miles away. Polar bears can detect the scent of a potential mate 100 miles away. Well, that may be because the air is clean in the polar regions!
Bears also have highly developed noses that contain hundred of tiny muscles and let them manipulate them with the same dexterity as people’s fingers. The surface area inside their 9 inch noses also has hundreds of times more surface area and receptors than a human’s.
Picture Credit : Google