WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Why Do Hounds Have Floppy Ears?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff Lauren vogel Bomb here with another classic podcast episode.

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<v Speaker 1>In this one, we delve into the important topic of

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<v Speaker 1>why some dog ears are so heck and floppy and

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<v Speaker 1>how it benefits them in the field. Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogelbaum Here. When two convicts pulled a shawshank redemption

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<v Speaker 1>in and tunneled out of the Clinton County Correctional Facility

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<v Speaker 1>and upstate New York, a two year old bloodhound named

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<v Speaker 1>Jinny was hot on their trail. Working with James Pedolino

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<v Speaker 1>from the Rensselaer County, New York Search and Rescue Team,

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<v Speaker 1>Jinny and a number of other canines used their noses

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<v Speaker 1>to scour the vast Adirondack region hoping to pick up

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<v Speaker 1>the escape e scent. Pedolino said of bloodhounds in an

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<v Speaker 1>interview with an Albany, New York television station, they never

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<v Speaker 1>make a sound on the trail. All this loose skin

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<v Speaker 1>helps hold the scent. Bloodhounds, with their flop skin and

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<v Speaker 1>gangly ears are the quintessential tracking dogs, and there's good reason.

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<v Speaker 1>While all types of dogs, including German shepherds and labrador

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<v Speaker 1>retrievers can sniff out convicts, cadavers, and victims of disasters.

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<v Speaker 1>The dogs with floppy ears seem to be the best

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<v Speaker 1>at what they do. For one thing, regardless of breed,

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<v Speaker 1>dogs have amazing noses, with more than two hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>twenty million olfactory receptors. Experts say a dog's sense of

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<v Speaker 1>smell is thousands of times more sensitive than a humans.

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<v Speaker 1>In two thousand nine, researchers at Pennsylvania State University created

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<v Speaker 1>a computer model of canines nose to better understand how

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<v Speaker 1>dogs smell. They reported in the Journal of the Royal

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<v Speaker 1>Society Interface that each nostril pulls in air about five

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<v Speaker 1>times every second. The dog, it seems, knows which nostril

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<v Speaker 1>is pulling in the scent, allowing them to turn right

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<v Speaker 1>or left when tracking. Moreover, receptors continue to hold onto

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<v Speaker 1>scent molecules even after the dog exhales. But that being said,

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<v Speaker 1>dogs with floppy ears, such as bloodhounds, coonhounds, and bassett hounds,

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<v Speaker 1>are exceedingly good trackers. That's because their long ears act

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<v Speaker 1>as catchers mits scooping up invisible scent particles on the

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<v Speaker 1>trail and sweeping them towards the nose. The scent particles

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<v Speaker 1>also get trapped in the folds of wrinkly skin on

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<v Speaker 1>their faces, allowing the dog to carry reference samples as

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<v Speaker 1>they hunt. Long ears also tamp down a dog's ability

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<v Speaker 1>to hear far off sounds, forcing the dogs to rely

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<v Speaker 1>more on their sense of smell. Today's episode is based

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<v Speaker 1>on the article why decent hounds have long floppy ears

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<v Speaker 1>on how stuff works dot Com, written by John Paritano.

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<v Speaker 1>Greenstuff is production of by Heart Radio and partnership with

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<v Speaker 1>how stuff works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Clang.

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