Mary Allen
If you have a dog, you’ve noticed a long time ago that your four-legged friend always has a cold nose. Researchers in Sweden and Hungary have studied this phenomenon more closely, and the results show that a cold nose has a special purpose.
Dogs Smell Warmth
Dogs have an area around their nostrils that no hair grows on – this is the so-called nasal mirror, also known as rhinarium. Because this area is full of nerves and has a significantly lower temperature than the rest of the dog’s body, the researchers suspected that, according to their study, the nose might be particularly sensitive to heat.
To test their thesis, they trained three dogs to be warm. Then, in an experiment, they placed two identical objects next to each other. One had room temperature, the other about 30 degrees.
Dogs should now be able to show a warmer object from a distance of 1.6 meters – and they almost always succeed.
Heat is Recognized Through the Nose
To confirm their findings, the researchers then examined 13 dogs using magnetic resonance imaging: brain waves were measured while four-legged friends were shown objects at different temperatures.
The result was obvious: the region of the brain that processes stimuli that the dog receives through the nose were extremely active during the experiment. Researchers see this as evidence that four-legged friends can feel warmth in their noses.
The results are sensational because they make the dog the only mammal in existence with this ability.