Unlocking the Magic: Contemplating Animal Senses – Londolozi Blog

Last week I stood in the Tree Camp car park on a cold, still morning. I could faintly hear the distant roar of one of the Ndzhenga Male Lions. Naturally, we decided to set off to go and find him. It didn’t take us long, switching off the vehicle every few minutes to listen so we could accurately pinpoint where the sound was coming from. Moments later, there we were, right beside him. Bearing the full brunt of his mighty roars.

I could tell by the look in his eyes, the way he abruptly slowed his breathing, and how he directed his ears intently for brief moments, that he was listening to the roar of another lion. It was to this lion that he had been responding. We marvelled at the depth of his hearing, realizing he was responding to a lion so far away that we couldn’t hear it.

Through his ears, the cool still evenings must be so alive, a vibrant symphony of sounds, painting a high-detailed picture for miles surrounding him. How far away could these lions hear one another?

Have you ever been in the middle of the wilderness, laid down underneath the stars, and just listened to the sounds around you?

“The world is full of magic things patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” – W.B. Yeats

We decided to close our eyes for a few moments, removing the distraction of our eyesight. We cupped our hands around our ears and we focused solely on listening to our surroundings. We still couldn’t hear the other lion, but it was interesting to experience how much louder and clearer our hearing became. There were brief moments when things that were not audible to us, would pique his interest.

Reflecting on this, we considered the diverse sensory worlds of different species, realizing the limitations of our human experience.

As humans, our lives are largely a visual experience. Every species perceives the world in a vastly different way, owing to each having a different set of sensory abilities. Therefore, each animal lives in their own ‘sensory world’. Essentially, every animal only perceives a tiny sliver of the fullness of reality. I find this to be incredibly humbling because our subjective ‘human’ experience of the world feels total, but this is actually just an illusion. Our senses can become quite specialized if you attempt to use them to their full potential. A simple case of “use it or lose it”.

I’ve always wondered what the world must be like through the eyes of a lion.

For lions, sense of smell and hearing are very important to them. These two senses make up a huge portion of how they perceive their world. Interestingly, air temperature has a dramatic effect on both. During the heat of the day, a lion’s world is duller, and its perception bubble is smaller than it is at night during the cooler hours.

The simple science behind cold air is that the increased density of the cool air enhances the transmission of vibrations (sound). Concerning smells – the volatile gasses that emanate from a particular source as scent, are quickly dissipated in the turbulence of warm air currents. In cold air, these gases are slowed and consolidated forming stronger, more consistent ‘clouds’ of scent around their source.

A white rhino bull following a scent trail (illustrated by the ‘bright blue smoke’) left behind by a female who passed through his territory in the early hours of the morning.

Over and above the beautiful sunrises and sunsets, my favourite thing about winter in the bush is the ability to feel a little more in tune with my surroundings due to the colder air.

Some mornings it feels like we are able to hear as far as our eyes can see.

On the contrary to lions, we humans feel as if our perception bubble rapidly diminishes as the Sun sinks below the horizon. Lions are active at night in the cooler hours for the same reason that we are active during daylight hours. All animals opt for the conditions that suit their sensory abilities best unless triggered otherwise out of necessity.

Weary impala rams leave nothing to chance during the hours in which predators are most active.

Aside from lions, imagine how many different sensory ‘realms’ exist across the animal kingdom. From the ability to detect magnetic fields, pulses of pressure in the air, electrical currents, sensitivity levels across vibrational spectrums or the ability to see a wider range of colours, including ultraviolet like most birds do. Imagine having most of your body covered in tastebuds, as is the case with some species of catfish. The combinations are endless.

Knob-thorn Flowers in winter.

To insects and birds, most plants and trees are thrumming with beautiful vibrational songs that we can’t hear.

We must realise that even mundane or somewhat boring aspects of our surroundings are in fact teeming with life and stimuli for the senses. For instance, what might appear as a stark, barren patch of grassland dotted with a few lifeless knobthorn trees, through the highly sophisticated nose of a lion, is actually a roiling scented topography.

Still in a restful doze, a hyena lifts its nose to smell the cool breeze that began to blow. With an acute sense of smell, what could it smell that we couldn’t?

Adopting this perspective invites us to appreciate the wonder and magic of everyday life, acknowledging that our perception is just one small facet of reality. We’d be depriving ourselves of the chance to immerse ourselves in nature and fully experience it unless we begin to contemplate the sensory world of other animals. As Wayne Dyer once said:

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”