Have you ever thought about what a dog smells as it stops to sniff at a tree? Or what a cat is watching as it stares intensely off into space? What about animals in the wild? What do they see, hear, smell, and feel? How do they perceive their surroundings? This is the illusive world. A world filled with fascinating stimuli that we are not equipped to detect. This is particularly true because we tend to rely so heavily on our eyes or ears.

We are figuratively, and literally, blind to this part of the natural world. This part, which is full of stimuli we cannot perceive, encompasses the daily lives of so many animals. Beneath our feet are ants, moles, and spiders using vibrations to coordinate colonies and communicate danger. In the oceans, turtles, fish, and octopi are sensitive to magnetic and electric fields, as well as tasty morsels at the tips of their tentacles. In the skies, owls and raptors can see deep into a lake or pierce the night with highly sensitive eyes.This book brings together all these animals and their amazing sensory abilities in an exploration of how animals perceive their world.

Within these pages are wonderful and exciting stories of organisms using their senses to perform sophisticated communication with nestmates, find hidden prey in the dark of night or murky of depths, and call to lovers both near and far. This book will open the door to this illusive world and will take you on a journey into the illusive world and see how different the world is when perceived through another animal's senses.

Preface

Section I. The Sensuous World
1. What's mine is mine and what's yours is yours
Section II. Vision
2. Eyes as windows to the soul
3. The Pollinator's Garden
4. Finding the Way Home
5. I Can See for Miles and Miles and Miles
6. Peering into the Darkness
7. Technicolor reamcoats
8. The Eye as a Window to the World
Section III. Audition
9. The Music of Nature
10. All About the Bass
11. The Sound of Fear.-  12. Sound Beneath the Waves
13. The Lover's Voice
14. The Power of Sound
Section IV. Olfaction
15. The Smell of Warm Bread
16. This is Not My House
17. Better Lies through Chemistry
18. Can't We All Just Get Along
19. Social Resume
20. The Emotions of Chemicals
Section V. Gustation
21. Putting Your Best Foot Forward
22. The Sweet Taste of Life
23. More than a Feeling
24. At Death's Door
25. A Different Chemical View
26. The Gustatory World
Section VI. Tactile
27. Picking up Good Vibrations
28. Coordinating theTeam
29. The Rhythm of the Bass
30. The Rhythm of the Dance
31. Tapping into Love
32. The Sensible Reverberations
Section VII. Other Senses
33. The Diverse World
34. The Pull of Home
35. Warmth of the Season
36. I go to Die, You to Live
37. A Shocking Discovery
38. Chasing Ghosts
39. The Uncharted World
Section VIII. The Illusive World
40. The Illusive World
Further Readings
Index.