Sniffs, scratches, sights and sounds: Ed Yong on how animals sense the world

Have you ever wondered why your dog takes such a long time to sniff a patch of grass? Or why flies buzz around so sporadically? It's because most of what a creature actually senses is invisible to us. They perceive their world as differently as we perceive our own. Pulitzer Prize winning science writer Ed Yong wrote a book about this called An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us . Join me for a fun conversation with Ed about the astonishing ways animals sense the world around us. From birds that navigate the open ocean by smell, to penguins that sense vibrations underground. By learning how animals perceive their world, it just might change the way we perceive them , and make us look at our own world a little differently. Check out our episode about AI and Animal Communication: Digital Dr. Dolittle: decoding animal conversations with artificial intelligence . Enjoy BONUS CONTENT and help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by joining THE WILD Patreon community at and you can donate to KUOW at kuow.org/donate/thewild . Thank you.

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Sniffs, scratches, sights and sounds: Ed Yong on how animals sense the world is an episode from The Wild with Chris Morgan by The Wild with Chris Morgan.

This episode is 27:40 long.

This episode was published on Nov 11, 2025.

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