The Human Sensory Experience Is Limited. Journey Into The World That Animals Know
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Loading... - Ingrid Crecelius
- 29 Jun 2022
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Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Ed Yong uses the example of a dark room: Though it might seem that there would be little to detect in the darkness, a bird in the room would be able to pick up on the magnetic field of the earth and would know which direction to fly if it was time to migrate. A dog would be sniffing out various odors that a human would not be able to smell. A rattlesnake would detect the presence of humans in the room by sensing their infrared radiation.
"Each of these creatures, we could all be sharing exactly the same physical space and have a radically different experience of that space," Yong says.
In his new book, An Immense World, Yong explores the diversity of perception in the animal world and the limitations of our own perception. He notes that each animal has access to its own sensory environment — called an "umwelt" — which creates its own "bespoke sliver of reality."
"Umwelt was popularized by a German biologist named Jakob von Uexküll," Yong says. "The word comes from the German for 'environment,' but von Uexküll wasn't using it to mean the physical environment. He meant the sensory environment, the unique set of smells, sights, sounds and textures that each animal has access to."
Yong points out that humans can't sense the faint electric fields that sharks and platypuses can, or the magnetic fields that robins and sea turtles detect. Our ears can't hear the ultrasonic call of rodents and hummingbirds, and our eyes can't see the ultraviolet light that the birds and the bees can sense. But, he says, imagining the world as animals perceive it opens up a new appreciation for the everyday wonders of nature.
"If you start thinking about the umwelt of other animals, you understand that nature's magnificence is all around us. It's in our backyards, it's in our gardens, it's in the bodies of some of the most familiar creatures around us, my dog, the pigeons on the street," Yong says. "It just makes things that felt very familiar feel newly wondrous." Read More...
