Know Your Noses

Noisy Noses

A male big nose acts as a kind of echo chamber. The bigger the monkey’s nose, the louder his honks and calls sound. He makes his loudest noises to warn of danger, breathes air through the blowhole on the top of its head. Some of the air fills small nose sacs beneath the blowhole. The dolphin uses these sacs to make clicks and other sounds. By listening to the sounds’ echoes, the dolphin can tell what’s around it, even in dark waters.