Superhuman Animals

Explore the extraordinary sense of sight in the animal world when Helen and Patrick reveal how caribou use UV light to avoid wolves; how seeing in slow motion lets dragonflies make a kill in the blink of a human eye; and show how one animal can see in pitch dark – without using its eyes.

In this episode we journey through the world of sound – from the deepest rumbles to the highest squeaks. Using specialized technology Helen and Patrick reveal how alligators use low pitch rumbles to make the water around them ‘dance’, show what it’s like to be a bat and to ‘see’ with sound, and convert a classic camper van into a giant speaker to conduct the ultimate hearing test for a herd of elephants.

In this episode we explore the powerful world of scent and the animals that have pushed their sense of smell way beyond human abilities. In the Bahamas, Helen dives into shark-infested waters with only a small pouch of liquid as her defense. Patrick controls the behavior of a swarm of bees using tiny traces of scent, and gets uncomfortably close to one of the smelliest animals in the world – a skunk!