Animals That Have Sixth Sense
Spiders All spiders have unique organs called slit sensilla. These mechanoreceptors, or sensory organs, allow them to sense minute mechanical strains on their exoskeleton. This sixth sense makes it easy for spiders to judge things like the size, weight, and possibly even the creature that gets caught in their webs.
Comb Jellies Jellies have some sensory organs unfamiliar to those of us with human senses. These majestic gelatinous creatures have specialized balance receptors called statocysts that allow them to balance themselves. Ocelli, which are simple photo-receptors, allow the eyeless animals to sense light and dark without creating a complex image.
Pigeons Pigeons have a sixth sense called magnetoreception. Many migratory animals, from salmon to sea turtles, have a unique ability to detect Earth's magnetic field that they utilize like a compass to navigate great distances.
Dolphins These charismatic sea mammals have the incredible sixth sense of echolocation. Because sound travels better in water than in air, dolphins create a three-dimensional visual representation of their surroundings based entirely on sound waves, much like a sonar device.
Sharks Electroreception is the remarkable ability of sharks and rays to detect electrical fields in their surroundings. Jelly-filled tubes called ampullary of Lorenzini house this sixth sense.
Salmon Salmon, as do other fish, have magnetoreception, or the ability to sense the Earth's magnetic field as their sixth sense. Salmon notably find their way back to spawn in the same rivers from which they were born, despite traveling great distances in the open ocean during their adult life.
Bats Bats have a trifecta of sixth senses, or perhaps a sixth, seventh, and eighth sense: echolocation, geomagnetic, and polarization. Bats use echolocation to find and capture prey. They have a larynx capable of generating an ultrasonic buzz, which they emit through their mouths or nose.
Mantis Shrimp Mantis shrimp also have a sixth sense related to polarization. They detect and communicate with other mantis shrimp using linear polarized light, even in ultraviolet and green wavelengths.
Weather Loaches Weather loaches, also known as weatherfish, have an incredible ability to detect changes in pressure. They use this sense to monitor buoyancy underwater and to compensate for the lack of a swim bladder.
Platypus These bizarre, duck-billed, egg-laying mammals have an incredible sense of electroreception, similar to the sixth sense of sharks. Using electrical impulses, they are able to locate prey in the dark, muddy waters of rivers and streams.
Sea turtles All sea turtles have a geomagnetic sense. Female sea turtles have a natal homing capability that is not well understood but allows them to find their way back to the beach where they hatched. Leatherback sea turtles have a particular type of biological clock, or "third eye" sense.