Many insects communicate through vibration, stomping to say hello. To capture these signals they have extremely sensitive hairs and sometimes vibration sensing organs in their ankles and antenna. Jiminy, like other crickets and katydids, also has sound sensing organs in his front knees. #Howloweek

Snakes have directional smelling. Flicking their tongue tips in the air they collect 2 separate smell samples. When they bring their tongue back into the mouth it rubs against the jacobson's smelling organ, telling them which direction a smell is strongest. #howloweek

A cat’s piano would have many more keys to the right side. They can hear much higher-pitched sounds than humans, up to 85kHz. They do this without sacrificing low-frequency hearing giving them a broad repertoire of listening experiences, bassy beats to bat calls. #howloweek

Rats smell an incredible diversity of scents, even at low concentration. They can follow a scent trail closely (within ~1cm), guiding them towards good scents (food, mates) and away from danger. Very important for an animal that cannot vomit to save themselves from dangerous eats. #howloweek

Owls may seem studious but don’t be fooled. That head contains enormous barrel shaped eyes for truly sharp vision, and asymmetric ears for highly accurate sound localization. There’s not much space left for brains. #howloweek #spoopy #critters #superpowers #halloween #wildlife #owls

Join avianeco’s resident witch next week for some true facts about animals associated with the occult. Check in everyday in the week for A/Vian’s annual creepy crawly critter celebration: #howloweek !