Book Report – An Immense World
Begin: 2/2/2024
Finish: 4/4/2024
Title: An Immense World
Author: ED Yong
Why I Choose to Read This Book:
To learn how animals and human senses are used, Their special senses are used to survive in their Umwelt (sensory bubble) or environment.
What I learned from this Book:
Smells and taste: The side facing slits of a dog’s nostrils allow its exhalation to waft more odor into its nose. Organs of smell come in varied forms, including trunks of elephants, beaks of Albatrosses and the forked tongue of the snake.
Endless way of seeing – Light: A jumping spider’s central eyes offer sharp vision, while the pair on the side tracks movements. the killer fly’s ultrafast vision allows it to capture quick flying insects in the span of a human blink. The bay scallop has dozens of bright blue eyes along the rim of its shell. The brittle star’s entire body is an eye, but only during the daytime. The huge top part of a male mayfly’s eye allows it to spot passing females. The chameleon can look forward and behind simultaneously with its independent eyes. With two eye fused into a single cylinder, Streetsia Challengeri can see above, below, and to the sides but not in front. In darkness so intense that you cannot see your own hand, the nocturnal sweat bee can still spot its small jungle nest.
Colors: Elephant hawkmoth can see the colors of flowers, even under dim light. Human has trichromatic color vision and dogs has dichromatic visions. Many natural patterns, including the markings on flowers and the facial stripes of the Ambon damsel fish, are visible only to eyes that can see ultraviolet. The bib of the broad-tailed hummingbird and the wing bars of the Heliconius Erato butterflies reflect ultraviolet colors than humans can’t perceive. The peacock mantis shrimp see color in a completely different way than other animals do, using the midband of its three part eye.
The unwanted sense – Pain: The naked mole-rat is insensitive to pain of acids and capsaicin, the chemical that gives chili their kick. Th thirteen lined ground squirrel can hibernate through the winter because it is insensitive to cold temperature that we would find painful.
So cool – heat: These animals can all sense the infrared radiation emanating from warm objects; Fire-chaser beetles do so to find burning forest, while vampire bats and rattle snake track down warm-blooded prey.
A rough sense – contact and flow: Sea otters use their sensitive paws to quickly feel for prey they can’t see, while red knots do the same by probing into sand with their bill. Tactile organs come in many forms – the nose of the star-nosed mole, the sting of the emerald jewel wasp, the facial feathers of the crested auklet, and the whiskers of a mouse manatees manipulate objects and greet each other with their exquisitely touch-sensitive lips.
The rippling ground – surface vibrations: The bumps on a crocodile’s snout can detect gentle ripples made by its prey. Even blindfolded, sprouts the harbor seal can track fish by using his whiskers to follow the invisible trails they leave in the water. The courting peacock create airflow patterns that they can sense with their crest feathers. With sensitive hairs, the tiger wandering spiders can detect the air currents created by passing flies.
All Eras – Sound: Treehoppers communicate by sending vibrations through the plants on which they stand. When converted into sound, these normally inaudible songs can resemble those of birds, monkeys or songs, or musical instruments. Sand scorpions sense the footfalls of their prey. Golden moles detect the thrums of wind blowing over termite rich sands dunes. Treefrog tadpoles hatch when fell the vibration of chewing snakes. The Nephila spiders ore web is an extension of its own sensory system and mind – but small Argyrodes spiders can hack it. These masters of hearing excel at pinpointing the location of sound: the barn owl listens for scuttling rodents, while the parasitic Ormia fly listens out for courting crickets. The calls of the male Tungara frog was shaped by the sensory bias of the female frog’s ear. Zebra finches listen for fast details that humans cannot perceive in their songs. Blue whales and Asian elephants can communicate over long distances with low-pitched infrasonic calls. In quieter eras, the whales calls could carry across entire oceans. The Philippine tarsier communicates in ultrasonic frequencies that are inaudible to us. The Greater Wax moth hears higher frequencies than any other known animals. Strangely, the Blue-throated hummingbird sings ultrasonic notes that it cannot hear.
A silent world shouts back – Echoes: A Brown bats attacks a Luna moth. The colored spectrogram represents echolocation. AS the bat closes in, its calls become faster and shorter, providing it with crisper detail. Dolphins can use their sonar to find buried objects, coordinate formations and distinguish fish by shape of their air filled gas blabbers.
Living Batteries – Electric Fields: The Blackghost knifefish, the Electric eel, the Glass Knifefish and the Ubangi elephantfish all produce their own electric field, which they use to sense the world around them. Tiny pores called Amullae of Lorenzini allow sharks and rays to detect minute electric field produce by their preys. These Ampillae are especially common on the heads of swordfish and hammerhead sharks. The Platypus’s bill can sense both pressure and electric fields, which it might combine into a single sense of electro touch. Bumble bees can sense the electric field of flowers.
They Know The Way – Magnetic Fields: Bogong moth, European robins, and Loggerhead turtles can all navigate over long distance by sensing earth’s magnetic field.
Every window at Once – Uniting the Senses: An octopus’s arms are partly independent; they can sense and explore the world without direction from the central brain. Animal’s entire body defines the nature of its Umwelt. Even animals that are paragons of one sensory domain have several at their disposal.
Save The Quiet, Preserve the Dark: We have learned about the sensory world of other species. But we are making it harder than ever for other animals to be because of chemical, waste, sound, light, and other man-made pollutions and we are destroying their habitats.
How will this book contribute to my success upon my release:
Understanding of how other animals life and their sensory world has opened my perspective of them. It make me want to help preserve their habitat which I would like to do when I volunteer my services to the communities.
