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Star-nosed mole
The star’s 22 fleshy rays are touch sensors. The mole brushes them against whatever is in front of it, then uses the small central pair to examine possible prey in finer detail. Underwater, it can sniff by blowing little bubbles against an object and drawing the bubbles back in.
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Proboscis monkey
An adult male’s nose hangs over its mouth and helps shape the sound of its calls. Computer models suggest that the enlarged nose strengthens lower frequencies and leaves a slightly different acoustic signature for each male.
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Saiga antelope
The saiga’s bulbous muzzle conditions the air it breathes. In the dry months it helps catch dust kicked up by a moving herd. In winter the same nose helps warm cold air before it reaches the lungs.
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Greater Horseshoe Bat
Look around the nostrils for a rim shaped like a horseshoe and a pointed flap above it. The bat sends its echolocation calls out through the nostrils. The folds of the nose leaf help shape the outgoing sound beam.
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Asian Elephant
The trunk combines the nose and upper lip into one flexible organ. The small projection at its tip helps grasp food with precision. For a drink, the elephant draws up water through the trunk and squirts it into its mouth.
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African bush elephant
Look at the bottom of the trunk for two opposing tips that can pinch a small piece of food. The Asian elephant has one projection there. Seeing what both kinds can pick up makes the trunk look much more like a hand than a large tube.
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Baird’s Tapir
A tapir’s nose and upper lip form a short, flexible trunk. The tip can grab a branch and strip its leaves, or poke above the surface like a snorkel while the animal is underwater.
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Northern Elephant Seal
In an adult male, the inflatable nose hangs over the lower lip. It helps the calls of rival males resonate during the winter breeding season. Females keep their smaller noses, so the profile gives a clue to which adult you’re looking at.
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Hooded Seal
An adult male can swell a dark hood over the front of his head. He can also inflate a partition inside his nose into a reddish balloon. The two-part display gets females’ attention during breeding and can signal aggression to rival males.
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Gharial
The knob at the end of an adult male’s snout is called a ghara. In the breeding season, males produce loud underwater pops and leave a trail of bubbles around the snout. Research suggests the ghara helps produce the sound along with a quick snap of the jaws.
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Pig-nosed Turtle
The nostrils sit at the end of a fleshy tube. With just that tip breaking the surface, the turtle can take a breath while the rest of its body stays underwater. Seen head-on, the two openings give it its piglike face.
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Amazon mata mata
On the flat, leaf-shaped head, look for the thin projection at the very tip. The turtle can lift that tube to the air and breathe while staying mostly submerged. It’s a different-looking solution to the same problem the pig-nosed turtle solves with its broad, blunt snout.
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Western Hognose Snake
The point at the end of the snout works like a little shovel. The snake pushes it into loose ground to dig after buried prey such as toads. Look for how the tip curves upward, even when the snake’s head is flat against the ground.
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Southern Brown Kiwi
The nostrils sit near the tip of the bill. That puts the kiwi’s sense of smell close to the soil and leaf litter it probes for invertebrates. The tip can also feel vibrations, so the bill can register a clue even before prey is visible.
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Turkey Vulture
The large nostril openings are visible in the bare red head of an adult. A turkey vulture can pick up the scent of a carcass even when trees hide it from view. Watch how it often searches low over the ground, where odors can be easier to pick up.
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Scalloped Hammerhead
The nostrils sit out toward the edges of the wide head, with grooves that channel water to them. The arrangement lets the shark sample a wider strip of water for odors as it swims. Those openings are for smell, and the gills handle breathing.
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Gray Whale
The whale’s two nostrils sit on top of its head, where they can reach air while most of its body stays submerged. A gray whale’s blow can look heart-shaped when seen from the front or back, as the two columns of vapor partly separate.
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Ribbon eel
The two flared structures look like little flags just in front of the eyes. Those are the eel’s enlarged front nostrils, where water can enter the smelling system. With the eel’s body tucked away, its face still gives away its identity.
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Green Moray
Look just above the jaws for a pair of stubby tubes. Water goes in there and leaves through a second pair of openings. The green moray relies heavily on smell to hunt in reef crevices at night. Its constantly opening mouth moves a separate stream of water across its gills.
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Giant Anteater
Smell helps the giant anteater locate ants and termites. Its long, narrow snout ends in a small opening through which a sticky tongue flicks out to pick them up. The shape makes it easy to see where the sniffing ends and the eating begins.
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Aardvark
When it finds ants or termites, the aardvark digs with its claws and sends out a long tongue. It can seal the nostrils on its narrow snout, a useful feature when its face is down in loose soil.
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