Humans could develop bloodhound-like skills if they spent more time detecting scents, it emerged today.
New research shows people can follow trails across countryside like dogs, using the sense of smell alone.
The study, published in Nature magazine, suggests humans are just out of practice at smelling, after people who repeatedly tracked smells across fields became faster and more accurate.
One of the reasons that dogs are so good at identifying smells are because they sniff so quickly, it was found.
The team also discovered that having two nostrils vastly improved mammals’ ability to identify whiffs with a sniff.
Researchers set up a scent trail of chocolate essential oil in an open grass field and asked 32 people whether they could follow the 10m-long line using their nose.
Two-thirds could, but when their noses were artificially blocked none of the volunteers were able to complete the trail, showing their sense of smell alone had guided them
