Thanks to ultra-sensitive scent receptors, bloodhounds possess an extraordinary sense of smell that surpasses humans by at least 1,000 times. When a bloodhound sniffs something, scents that are undetectable to humans inundate the dog’s 230 million olfactory cells. PBS explains:
“Chemical signals are then sent to the olfactory bulb, the part of the brain that analyzes smells, and an “odor image” is created. For the dog, this image is far more detailed than a photograph is for a human. Using the odor image as a reference, the bloodhound is able to locate a subject’s trail, which is made up of a chemical cocktail of scents including breath, sweat vapor, and skin rafts.”
Bloodhounds are then able track the trail of that image across time and a landscape full of other smells.
“So potent is the drive to track, bloodhounds have been known to stick to a trail for more than 130 miles.”
Moose, a bloodhound that lives in a small Illinois town, put these incredible skills to the test when he went looking for his human, who hid in a corn field around a quarter mile (400 meters) away. Can Moose find her?
Look at that dog run! Watch the low-res drone video above.
Follow Moose in higher resolution on Instagram and TikTok.
Related reading: Dogs’ Dazzling Sense of Smell.
Then watch these related videos next:
• How do dog noses know so much?
• The avalanche rescue dogs of Mount Bachelor
• How To Capture A Scent, an easy science experiment
• What makes that fresh rain smell? MIT films rain drops to find out
• How many smells can you identify?
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