History Main / MysteriousAnimalSenses

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': Catwoman steals a necklace protected by a [[LaserHallway laser grid]] by sending in her cat Isis, who can see the beams and is small and nimble enough to maneuver between them.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}''

** ''While wandering frantically through a bunch of hedges with blue flowers and red thorns'', for those who haven't seen the movie.

* In a non-fictional subversion, bats were variously hypothesized to possess either phenomenal night vision or (once blindfold experiments shot that down) a sense of touch so keen that they could feel distortions in air density from nearby objects. Only when earplug tests revealed they needed to hear to navigate was the mystery of their MysteriousAnimalSenses (echolocation) solved.

** Spoofed in the book ''Discworld/MovingPictures'', where the talking Holy Wood animals are annoyed that Victor keeps referring to them as having "mysterious animal senses".

See also SuperSenses, SpiderSense and AnimalEyes. Compare SenseFreak. Super-awesome animal-like senses are often employed as one of the reasons why {{Funny Animal}}s and {{BeastM|an}}en [[OurElvesAreBetter are better]], and the lack of those makes humans PunyEarthlings in comparison.

An animal-specific subtrope of BizarreAlienSenses.

See also SuperSenses, SpiderSense and AnimalEyes. Compare SenseFreak. Super-awesome animal-like senses are often employed as one of the reasons why PettingZooPeople [[OurElvesAreBetter are better]], and the lack of those makes humans PunyEarthlings in comparison.

* Any [[PettingZooPeople Vector]] in ''TabletopGame/HcSvntDracones'' can develop their sense of smell as a skill, but they can't track or identify someone's mood by scent without [[BioAugmentation genetic reclamation surgery]]. And any other weird animal sense requires Surgery too.

* It's mentioned in ''Literature/TheColdMoons'' that many badgers can instinctively sense how long snow will last. Humans also have this ability, but it's been heavily dulled through the generations.

[[folder: Literature ]]

* Averted in the ''Literature/{{Silverwing}}'' series - the bat main characters view the environment almost exclusively through echolocation, and colors besides silver are never mentioned. This was deliberately done by the author, and it is not something you notice until you know. (Also, in this case, "silver" probably refers to reflective gray.)
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''
** Spoofed in the book ''Discworld/MovingPictures'', where the talking Holy Wood animals are annoyed that Victor keeps referring to them as having "mysterious animal senses".
** Gaspode the Wonder Dog is also rather put out to find that he's seeing in color. All of a sudden, the pleasantly gray meat scraps he'd previously enjoyed are all icky red/maroon stuff!

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* Each Species in ''TabletopGame/{{Ironclaw}}'' has one or two Natural Senses, but no more; when using those senses, they can include their Species Trait in their Observation roll. Some Species have Gifts that improve those sense even further (Keen Eyes, Keen Ears, Keen Nose), or provide exotic sensory abilities like Echolocation.
* Any [[PettingZooPeople Vector]] in ''TabletopGame/HcSvntDracones'' can develop their sense of smell as a skill, but they can't track or identify someone's mood by scent without [[BioAugmentation genetic reclamation surgery]]. And any other weird animal sense requires Surgery too.

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* In ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'', it's occasionally mentioned that Kell (a wolf) is color-blind, and characters are frequently shown perceiving the world primarily through scent.

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* In ''Roleplay/DarwinsSoldiers'', Dr. Kerzach, a anthropomorphic cassowary has pretty much no sense of smell.
** Also, [[SnakePeople snakes]] have poor hearing.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' also use odd visual filters when using an animal's POV on occasion.
** In ''Rugrats'', Spike's point of view is always shown in grayscale, since dogs don't see color, but his ''sound'' perception is different every time: in one, human dialogue is understandable but a bit distorted; in another, dialogue is about half understandable and half gibberish, but distorted into extremely deep voices; and another had no distortions but was all gibberish and mumbling with a different sound for each character.

[[folder: Film ]]

* A similar joke is used for a WireDilemma in ''Film/CatsAndDogs''.

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* In a non-fictional subversion, bats were variously hypothesized to possess either phenomenal night vision or (once blindfold experiments shot that down) a sense of touch so keen that they could feel distortions in air density from nearby objects. Only when earplug tests revealed they needed to hear to navigate was the mystery of their MysteriousAnimalSenses (echolocation) solved.
** Funnily enough, that "sensing distortions in air density from nearby objects" hypothesis? It actually does apply, just not for bats, but for ''humans''. Not usually very highly developed in people who aren't blind (and even for people who are, it hardly replaces normal vision), but such "facial vision" can help people who have impaired vision sense the general size and location of large objects.
* A lot of animals that folklore says are "colorblind" don't actually have monochromatic vision, though their color vision isn't exactly the same as that of humans. Dogs, for example, are rather ''better'' than humans at distinguishing between hues of blue, but have more trouble telling orange from red. However, many animals do seem to impart rather less importance to color than humans do... cats were thought to be colorblind until researchers realized they were just ignoring it completely and relying on their sense of smell instead (if it didn't smell like food, the cats couldn't care less what color it was, because ''cats'').

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''[[VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice Sam & Max Hit the Road]]'': The two main characters (a dog and a rabbit) purchase a paint-by-numbers game only to find out neither can see in color.

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'', Florence (an {{uplifted|Animal}} "Bowman's wolf") does have superhuman smell, but she must defer to humans as to what are "good" smells ("[[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff700/fv00646.htm Decaying Buffalo...]] There's a scent that... Well... You just want to roll in it."). She's also colorblind ([[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff300/fv00209.htm "It's always difficult trying to appear attractive to a sense you don't have]]), and mentions that she hears in a different range to humans (shouting to overcome a high-pitched noise her coworkers can't hear, for instance).
** However, it's later revealed that all Bowman's Wolves are ''extra'' colour blind, as a result of the 'Uplifting' modifications. Your average dog can see light and dark blue well enough to tell the difference, so presumably wolves and other canines can.

* ''[[SamAndMaxFreelancePolice Sam & Max Hit the Road]]'': The two main characters (a dog and a rabbit) purchase a paint-by-numbers game only to find out neither can see in color.

* In the Literature/WhateleyUniverse, after Merry gets turned into a WereCat, she goes color-blind.

* In the WhateleyUniverse, after Merry gets turned into a WereCat, she goes color-blind.

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While many animals ''do'' have interesting and novel abilities, they also lack some of the senses humans consider to be mundane - tri-chromatic vision most obviously (but not exclusively). No single animal has all the nifty keen abilities you saw on that one DiscoveryChannel special.

* ''{{Shrek}}''

* Each Species in ''{{Ironclaw}}'' has one or two Natural Senses, but no more; when using those senses, they can include their Species Trait in their Observation roll. Some Species have Gifts that improve those sense even further (Keen Eyes, Keen Ears, Keen Nose), or provide exotic sensory abilities like Echolocation.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''{{Rugrats}}'' also use odd visual filters when using an animal's POV on occasion.

While many animals ''do'' have interesting and novel abilities, they also lack some of the senses humans consider to be mundane - tri-chromatic vision most obviously (but not exclusively). No single animal has all the nifty keen abilities you
saw on that one DiscoveryChannel special.

See also SuperSenses, SpiderSense and AnimalEyes. Compare SenseFreak. Super-awesome animal-like senses are often employed as one of the reasons why OurElvesAreBetter (PettingZooPeople as well) and the lack of those makes humans PunyEarthlings in comparison.

* In ''DarwinsSoldiers'', Dr. Kerzach, a anthropomorphic cassowary has pretty much no sense of smell.

* In ''KevinAndKell'', it's occasionally mentioned that Kell (a wolf) is color-blind, and characters are frequently shown perceiving the world primarily through scent.

While many animals ''do'' have interesting and novel abilities, they also lack some of the senses humans consider to be mundane - tri-chromatic vision most obviously (but not exclusively). No single animal has all the nifty keen abilities you saw on that one DiscoveryChannel special.

A [[BigBadassWolf wolf protagonist]]? Not only can he discover your life history from one whiff of your clothes, he can also tell what color hat you're wearing from a mile away, and hear the sound of snow falling through a half foot of steel. And probably be able to [[EvilDetectingDog sense ghosts]] and the innate innocence of the AllLovingHero, to boot.

This is not... exactly how it works in RealLife.

While many animals ''do'' have interesting and novel abilities, they also tend to lack some of the senses humans consider to be completely mundane - tri-chromatic vision most obviously (but not exclusively). And no single animal has all the nifty keen abilities you saw on that one DiscoveryChannel special.

* Averted in the ''Literature/{{Silverwing}}'' series - the bat main characters view the environment almost exclusively through echolocation, and colors besides silver are essentially never mentioned.
** This was actually deliberately done by the author, and it is not something you notice until you know. (Also, in this case, "silver" probably refers to reflective gray.)

* Another subversion is that a lot of animals that folklore says are "colorblind" don't actually have monochromatic vision, though their color vision isn't exactly the same as that of humans. Dogs, for example, are rather ''better'' than humans at distinguishing between hues of blue, but have more trouble telling orange from red. However, many animals do seem to impart rather less importance to color than humans do... cats were thought to be colorblind until researchers realized they were just ignoring it completely and relying on their sense of smell instead (if it didn't smell like food, the cats couldn't care less what color it was, because ''cats'').