Inside the Animal Mind – TV review

Chris Packham, Sir David Attenborough's heir apparent, puts the cool in cagoule in this fascinating blend of science and spectacleI knew dogs were good with their noses. I didn't know they were that good. Fern here – a cutely life-jacketed sprocker (half springer, half cocker) spaniel hanging eagerly over the front of a rubber dinghy – can sniff out a tin of pork under 7m of water and a further metre of silt at the bottom of lake on a howling windy wet day in Northern Ireland. As Chris Packham says, it kind of makes a mockery of those fugitives running down creeks to escape baying bloodhounds in the movies. Movie fugitives, don't bother; you might as well keep your boots dry.He – Chris Packham – is trying to do something he's always wanted to: get Inside the Animal Mind (BBC2). Via their senses, in this one (the first of three). It's not just about Fern's amazing nose, then: it's about what animals use their noses, and their other senses, to do.So wolves and dogs are equally good at sniffing out a cheese treat hidden under a cup. But they prioritise their senses differently. If the dog's owner points at the cup without any cheese underneath, the dog will still go to that one, even though there are no nice cheesy smells coming from it. Dogs put visual stimulus first; they have been domesticated, turned into obedient idiots by us. Not so the wolf, which follows its nose, literally. Wolves also like Chanel No 5, interestingly. Aaaaeeerrorooo.There's v...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: The Guardian Television industry Biology Culture World news & radio Media Reviews BBC2 Animals Animal behaviour Science amp; radio Source Type: news