Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2014 October 11

= October 11 =

Why do rabbits always move their nose from down to up perennially?
5.28.188.65 (talk) 13:29, 11 October 2014 (UTC)


 * It helps them smell things. Start with Snout and see where it leads you. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 14:44, 11 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Perennially doesn't seem like the right word. Perhaps continuously is a better choice ? StuRat (talk) 16:19, 11 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Or just leave that word out. "Always" was already there. HiLo48 (talk) 18:12, 11 October 2014 (UTC)


 * My mother moves the winter and summer decorations up to the attic and down to the basement perennially. I'll have to see if it improves her smell. μηδείς (talk) 19:11, 11 October 2014 (UTC)


 * I believe the purpose is to draw air into the nose to catch odors. Larger mammals tend to flare their nostrils instead to do this.  I'm not sure what the relative advantages are of one method over the other, or why just inhaling through the nose isn't as good (perhaps some subtle scents might shoot right past the sensors.) . StuRat (talk) 20:38, 11 October 2014 (UTC)


 * That flaring of the nostrils is usually sexual, and is called the flehmen response. μηδείς (talk) 20:47, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
 * If that's what the rabbit is up to, it certainly works. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 21:49, 11 October 2014 (UTC)


 * If virtually every carnivore in the neighbourhood liked how I tasted, I'd continually sniff for them, too. In rabbits, 26,000 receptor cells converge onto only 200 glomeruli, which then converge onto 25 mitral cells. This results in an amplification of about 1,000:1. InedibleHulk (talk) 15:11, 14 October 2014 (UTC)