scent or heat?

1

12gaugedust

New member
My question is do bird dogs smell the scent of the pheasant or the heat of a live bird? Ive heard both just want some clarification on this topic.
 
12gaugedust said:
My question is do bird dogs smell the scent of the pheasant or the heat of a live bird? Ive heard both just want some clarification on this topic.
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How can you smell "heat"? Heat doesn't have a scent of it's own. Thus I'm sure dogs are smelling the scent of the bird. Any heat arising from the bird might enhance the scent.
 
I have long suspicioned that once a gamebird discovers a setter is out and about the woods or field, the bird gives off the cloying scent of fear.
Therefore...scent, not heat.:)
 
And what i meant by heat was the warmth of the bird in the cold. Not the smell. Its hard to explain but hopefully you get my drift.
 
12gaugedust said:
And what i meant by heat was the warmth of the bird in the cold. Not the smell. Its hard to explain but hopefully you get my drift.
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Still scent. They can also smell the scent coming off of the breath put off by the bird as well, but its still scent.
 
This post has been stuck in my head for a while now.

I have a theory. When it is cold, the birds sit and fluff up their feathers, drawing in air and creating insulation. When a threat is near, the birds try to become a small as possible and let the layer of insulation (the warm air) out. This gives off quite a bit of scent. I think that this may be a reason that dogs can scent birds better when it is cold out.

Not scenting heat, but picking up the extra scent released when the birds smooths its feathers and hunkers down. I may be way off, but it makes sense to me.
 
Thrasher, I just read something about Emperor Penguins trapping a layer of air in their feathers. When they leave the water and jump onto the ice, they lay down a layer of air bubbles the last 50 meters. The air bubbles reduce friction and allow them to double there speed and jump over sea lions waiting at the waters edge.

Your theory, there might be something to it.
 
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