Elephants have a very refined sense of smell. They have more smell receptors than any other mammal species. It has been proved that the elephants can smell water sources from a distance of almost 12 miles and distinguish between similar smells of different species of plants to detect the ones that they prefer to eat. Elephants are known to be able to detect body odour of people belonging to different tribes to avoid the ones that are hostile towards them.
In the jungle, elephants can smell predators from a great distance and warn others in the herd to be on the alert. Jim’s Jungle Retreat naturalist Jeewan Rautela came across this young elephant on a safari to Corbett Tiger Reserve. The pachyderm was alarmed by the smell of a tiger that was moving in a nearby forested stream and warned the others in its herd of the presence of the predator by giving out distress calls.