Sensing in the Anthropocene

Abstract

This chapter examines how the growing understanding of the variety of sensory systems used by nature has inspired new technologies to benefit human lives and society. A growing area is biomimicry, which involves inventions inspired by nature, and this has included trying to copy the sensory systems of animals. Humans also use animals directly in many ways; tens of billions of birds are kept for food production, not to mention other animal groups. There is much potential for food industries and places such as zoos to adopt conditions that are tailored to the sensory worlds and wellbeing of the animals they keep. The chapter then addresses how humans are dramatically altering the sensory worlds of animals. It considers the impacts of chemical pollution, sound or noise pollution, light pollution, electromagnetic noise, and climate change on animal senses. Finally, the chapter looks at how knowledge of animal senses has been put to good use in seeking to solve one of the problems of humanity’s own creation, namely overfishing. The use of LED lights in fisheries as a way of preventing bycatch, especially of highly visual animals such as turtles, is very promising, and target species appear to be relatively unaffected.