I’ve got a big nose. And I smell very good too. In a lot of ways. I get that appendage honestly. Mom and Dad both had colossal schnozes.
All of this nosey business made me wonder. Just who has the best nose in the whole world?
Per a study done in 2014, elephants put their noses to better use than any other creature on Earth. By the way. They also have the largest noses of anyone, anywhere. And in that body of theirs, they have 2,000 genes coded for nasal receptor proteins. That is as many as rats (1,200) and dogs (800) combined.
But what about us humans?
As it turns out, the average person can detect more than 1 trillion different odors. This just seems astounding to me. I didn’t know there were that many odors in the world. Anyway, this figure is far more than scientists once believed.
But how do we stack up with other species? Well, we have about 400 different types of odor receptors in our noses. Dogs have roughly 800, while elephants have around 2,000.
Here is another thing. The human nose can remember odors for years. We all know this to be true. A familiar scent can instantly bring back memories from decades ago. This is all because smell is closely linked to the brain’s memory and emotion centers.
I know this to be true, especially around the smells of food. Chocolate chip cookies baking. Liver and onions frying. Bacon cooking in the skillet. All of these things throw me back toward childhood.
But back to thos other species. As mentioned, elephants are the big winner here. They have the strongest known sense of smell among mammals.
And then there are my little buddies, Louis and Piper. You see, those good dogs can smell 10,000 to 100,000 times better than humans, depending on the breed.
Bear with me. Because bears may have an even better sense of smell than dogs. A polar bear can reportedly detect a seal beneath several feet of snow from over half a mile away. I’m feeling sad for the seal.
Sharks can detect tiny amounts of blood in the water. But that popular myth? The one that says they can smell “a drop from miles away”? It is greatly exaggerated.
Snakes don’t really smell with their noses. They flick their tongues to collect chemical particles. Those little bits are then delivered to the Jacobson’s organ, which is in the roof of their mouths. Flick and sniff.
Butterflies smell with receptors on their antennae. And some species can even taste with their feet.
Switching to moths. They have such sensitive antennae that male silk moths can detect the scent of a female from several miles away.
I’ve said before that I like rats. Get this. Rats are excellent sniffers and have been trained to detect landmines, tuberculosis, and even some forms of cancer.
And there it is. Some of us. Some of them.
Sniffing, and smelling, and whiffing. Some better than others.
Breathe it in today, and see what comes to your nose. It knows.
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“Nothing revives the past so completely as a smell that was once associated with it.” — Vladimir Nabokov
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“Smell is a potent wizard that transports us across thousands of miles and all the years we have lived.” — Helen Keller
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“Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero
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