Name: 狗狗的嗅覺到底多神？能聞出方向、過去，甚至你的情緒 (Nature’s supercomputer lives on your dog | Ed Yong)
Uploaded: 2025-11-27T21:01:20.000Z
Duration: 8 min 25 s

Many animals, from sharks to elephants, are amazing at smell.

許多動物，從鯊魚到大象，都有驚人的嗅覺。

But the ones that I think are closest to us and that we think of most often as olfactory champions are dogs.

但我認為最接近我們，且我們最常認為是嗅覺冠軍的動物，是狗。

情態副詞

The things that dogs can do with their noses are truly extraordinary.

狗用鼻子能做的事情，真的是非常了不起。

They can tell identical twins apart by smell.

它們能透過氣味分辨同卵雙胞胎。

They can tell the direction a person has walked in by sniffing the footsteps that remain behind.

它們能透過嗅出腳印的氣味，判斷一個人走過的方向。

They have been trained to detect drugs, obviously, but

它們當然被訓練來偵測毒品，但

also everything from electronics to the scat of big predators.

也能偵測從電子產品到大型掠食者的排泄物等各種東西。

You have dogs with, like, goggles and snorkels sitting on the prows of boats sniffing away for the scent of whales.

有些狗甚至戴著護目鏡和浮潛管，坐在船頭嗅探鯨魚的氣味。

All of these things, I think, are like incredible party tricks, right?

我覺得所有這些都是難以置信的「派對技巧」，對吧？

They make us gasp and wow at the amazing abilities of dogs.

它們讓我們驚呼，對狗的驚人能力感到讚嘆。

But I think that the things they can do with smell are extraordinary in a much more everyday way.

但我認為，狗的嗅覺能力在日常生活中也同樣非凡。

I'm a science writer at the Atlantic, and

我是《大西洋月刊》的科學作家，並且

I'm the author of An Immense How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us.

是《An Immense How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us》一書的作者。

So to learn more about how dogs smell the world,

所以，為了了解狗如何嗅探世界，

I wanted to talk to an expert who's really thought hard about the olfactory world of dogs.

我想要訪問一位對狗的嗅覺世界有深入研究的專家。

And there's none better than Professor Alexandra Horowitz at Columbia University.

沒有比哥倫比亞大學的 Alexandra Horowitz 教授更適合的人了。

She's a psychologist who works with dogs, who has dogs of her own,

她是一位與狗合作的心理學家，也養有自己的狗，

and has written extensively about their noses and their sense of smell.

並且對狗的鼻子和嗅覺寫了大量的研究。

So I met her and her lab mix Finn, at Columbia.

所以我在哥倫比亞大學見到了她和她的混種狗 Finn。

She showed me some of the experiments that she's done with Finn, and

她展示了與 Finn 進行的一些實驗，然後

we went for a long walk around a nearby park.

我們在附近公園散了很長時間的步。

And the walk is really important because Alexandra has this strong belief that dogs should be allowed to be dogs.

這段散步非常重要，因為 Alexandra 堅信狗應該被允許做狗該做的事。

They should be allowed to smell to their noses content.

Often, human owners pull them away from that olfactory world.

但人類主人常常會拉它們離開那個嗅覺世界。

We see walks as exercise, or a means getting from point A to point B.

我們把散步視為運動，或者是從 A 點到 B 點的方式。

And we hurry our dogs along, we pull them away from attempts to sniff the world around them.

我們催促狗快走，拉開它們對周圍世界嗅探的嘗試。

She lets them sniff and control the pace of the walk.

她讓它們嗅聞並掌控散步的節奏。

And she has done studies showing that, as a result,

they are more optimistic, they are less anxious, they're just happier, they're more dog like.

狗更樂觀、焦慮更少、更快樂，也更像狗。

I think many of us who own dogs may not have really looked at this, but

我想，很多養狗的人可能沒有真正注意過這點，但

the next time you look at your dog, just pay attention to the shape of its nostrils.

下次你看你的狗時，注意它鼻孔的形狀。

There are two holes at the front like ours, but

前面有兩個洞，就像我們的鼻孔，但

the holes curve off to the sides like apostrophes, and

Like if I was to bend down and sniff along the ground, every time I exhaled,

比如我低頭嗅地面，每次呼氣時，

I would push odours on the ground away from me.

But when a dog exhales, those side slits create little vortices that actually waft odors into its nose.

但狗呼氣時，側孔會形成小旋渦，把氣味帶入鼻中。

So a dog that's sniffing, whether it's exhaling or inhaling,

所以狗在嗅聞時，不管是吸氣還是呼氣，

is continuously getting this conveyor belt of smell wafting into its nose.

都會持續接收到氣味「傳送帶」般送入鼻子。

And dogs can do this for a huge amount of time.

If I kept on sniffing, I would hyperventilate.

如果我一直嗅，我會過度換氣。

A dog can keep on doing it and be fine and just continuously update its sensory snapshot of the world in the process.

狗可以持續嗅並保持正常，同時不斷更新它對世界的嗅覺快照。

Light and smells are obviously two very different kinds of stimuli.

光和氣味顯然是兩種完全不同的刺激。

so vision feels like quite an instantaneous sense to us, but one that's also blocked by obstacles.

因此視覺對我們來說是一種幾乎瞬時的感覺，但也會被障礙阻擋。

Smells are just small molecules drifting to the air.

氣味是漂浮在空氣中的小分子。

They can diffuse, fuse, and seep, and they can last over a long period of time.

它們可以擴散、融合、滲透，並可以持續很長時間。

The smells in this room will waft over from other rooms, around corners.

這個房間的氣味會從其他房間飄過來，繞過角落。

They can reveal what happened in the recent past.

They can tell me about who was recently in this room in the way that light cannot.

它們能告訴我最近誰來過這個房間，這是光無法做到的。

But to make use of that information, I would need to have the right nose,

但要利用這些資訊，我需要有合適的鼻子，

or at least have a brain that pays attention to the information that smells provide.

或者至少擁有能注意氣味提供資訊的大腦。

Much of what exists in a dog's nose Is similar to what exists in ours, but

狗鼻中的許多結構與我們相似，但

我吸氣時，空氣進入我的鼻子，

then it passes by this sticky layer on the underside of my palate, and

That's where molecules in the air that provide us with our sense of smell are grabbed and detected.

空氣中的分子被這裡捕捉並感知，讓我們聞到氣味。

In a dog's nose, it works a little bit differently.

There is a structure that cleaves that airstream in two.

有一個結構將氣流分為兩部分。

Some of it moves upwards into the dog's nose, while the rest goes into the lungs.

部分氣流進入狗的鼻子，其餘進入肺部。

The bit that goes into the nose enters this kind of bony labyrinth, this very convoluted set of passages.

進入鼻子的氣流進入一個骨質迷宮，非常曲折的通道。

And the olfactory epithelium in the dog is spread around those passages, and

that greatly increases the surface area over which the dog can grab passing molecules in that air.

大大增加了狗捕捉空氣中分子的表面積。

When a dog's inhaling and exhaling, it's not constantly pushing scent out of its nose.

狗吸氣呼氣時，不會把氣味完全排出鼻外。

There's always scent that lingers and that can be detected.

氣味會持續留存，隨時可被感知。

So every day, I take my dog typo out for a walk, and

I just watch him as he explores the pavements around us.

We'll be walking along and Typo will suddenly grind to a halt,

我們散步時，Typo 會突然停下，

and fastidiously explore the spot of pavement that looks identical to all the other spots of pavements around it,

仔細探索看似與周圍其他地面一樣的地方，

but clearly to him, smell [is] fresh and exciting and enticing.

但對他而言，氣味是新鮮、令人興奮又誘人的。

He'll just, with maximal delicacy, look at every leaf and every budding flower.

他會細緻地嗅每片葉子和每朵花苞。

A dog's sense of smell does allow it to peer into the past.

狗的嗅覺確實能讓它窺探過去。

He can smell which dogs have been on that street before us.

他能嗅出哪些狗曾經走過這條街。

But he has access to that kind of information.

He can likely identify the friends that he has at a local dog park.

他可能能辨認出在當地狗公園的朋友。

He can probably tell things about their current status, you know, their health.

他可能還能了解它們的現況，比如健康狀態。

When I take Typo on a walk and I see him sniff, like patches of pee,

當我帶 Typo 散步，看他嗅尿液斑點時，

to me, that's like watching a person scroll their social media feed.

對我而言，就像看人刷社群媒體。

You know, when I'm walking next to him, looking at Instagram on my phone, we're basically doing the same thing.

當我走在他旁邊，用手機看 Instagram，我們基本上在做同樣的事。

It's a deeply cognitive and very social experience.

這是一種高度認知且非常社交的體驗。

My dog licks my face first thing every morning.

我的狗每天早上第一件事就是舔我的臉。

I don't necessarily want him to be eating poop off the street, but

And similarly, you know, I've seen dog owners pulling their dogs away from sniffing the genitals of other dogs

同樣的，我也看過主人拉開狗，不讓它嗅其他狗的生殖器

because that's not a thing humans would do to each other.

We culturally think of it as being uncouth or gross, but it's not any of those things.

我們文化上認為這很粗俗或噁心，但對狗來說並不是。

To a dog, it's actually very natural and incredibly social.

對狗而言，這非常自然且極具社交性。

And there's a reason why a dog meeting a strange dog will sniff its groin or its butt.

這就是為什麼狗見到陌生狗會嗅它的腹股溝或屁股。