Why dogs have cold noses: Scientists claim they serve as ultra-sensitive heat sensors that can help breeds such as retrievers detect the presence of small mammals from five feet away

• Tip of a dog's nose is generally several degrees cooler than ambient temperature
• This allows them to detect very faint heat sources from several feet away 
• The research proves that dogs' noses serve an important sensory function, rather than just regulating their body temperature

By Jonathan Chadwick For Mailonline

Dogs' noses are so cold because they are ultra-sensitive heat detectors, a new study has confirmed.

While it has been widely assumed the phenomenon is related to body temperature regulation, European researchers have now revealed that the tip of the nose serves an important sensory function.

They found that when the ambient temperature is 30°C (86°F), a dog's rhinarium – the bare end point of its nose that is full of nerves – is some 5°C (9°F) cooler. 

This helps breeds such as retrievers to detect very faint heat sources, such as the presence of a small mammal, from five feet away.     

Thermograph of a Golden Retriever named Kevin in the shade at 80°F (27°C) ambient temperature. The colour scale on the right is in degrees celsius and can be used to read out approximate temperatures. Note the warm tongue and the cold rhinarium (hairless nose tip)

The team trained three dogs – a Golden Retriever named Kevin, a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever named Delfi, and a mixed breed called Charlie – to distinguish between two identical four-inch wide objects based on radiating heat.

The 'neutral' object was about room temperature and the warm object was heated to around 12°C (22°F) above room temperature. 

All three dogs were able to sense weak thermal radiation from the warm object from a distance of five feet, despite the difference in temperature being too small for humans to detect without touching. 

'All stimuli of radiating heat used in our experiments were too weak to be felt by human hands, even at very short distances,' the researchers wrote.

'We had to touch the surfaces to feel the warmth.' 

The experiment shows that dogs' rhinariums serve a sensory function - they detect heat - rather than just regulating their body temperature. 

Thermograph of golden retriever pictured choosing a warmer object over a colder one. The dog’s rhinarium - the naked, wet skin surface at the tip of the nose - works as an infrared sensor which can sense weak thermal radiation

WHAT IS THE RHINARIUM?  

Rhinarium is the hairless skin area surrounding the nostrils in certain mammals.

It's part of the olfactory system and is therefore associated with the sense of smell. 

Animals with rhinarium – which also include cats, walruses, elephants and lemurs – are said to have a more acute sense of smell.

It has also been found to act as a wind detector, allowing animals to detect the direction from which certain smells have come from.

To further prove their theory, the scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain activity in 13 awake dogs by detecting changes associated with blood flow.

For this part of the study, the team enlisted the help of five golden retrievers, four border collies, one Australian shepherd, one Chinese crested and two mixed breeds. 

They found that putting a warm object in front of the dog's nose caused increased responsiveness in the brain. 

'From the two, complementary experiments, we can conclude that dogs are indeed capable of sensing thermal radiation emanating from warm-blooded animals, use this sensory information for directed behaviour that could be relevant for hunting, and that a specific region of the somatosensory system is activated by such infrared radiation,' said lead author Anna Bálint, postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary. 

The warm stimulus presented to the dogs elicited increased response in the left somatosensory association cortex of the brain. Functional MRI (left) on a reconstructed 3D image of the dog's brain showing increased activity, and right shown in a horizontal slice

A dog's nose changes temperature depending on the surrounding ambient temperature.  

If the outside temperature is freezing – 32°F or 0°C – a dog's nose will be around 46°F. However, if the surrounding temperature is 59°F (15°C), the pooch's nose is around the same.  

While it has been widely assumed the phenomenon is related to body temperature regulation, the researchers questioned the theory because the rhinarium has such a small surface area compared to the rest of the body. 

Researchers say the role of the wet rhinarium in regulation of heat is unlikely because of its small size, disproving previous theories, and is used, as above, to detect the presence of small mammals

Panting is also a previously established technique by dogs to release heat. 

'If a dog is exposed to moderate heat stress and starts to pant, it extends the tongue from the open mouth,' the researchers say. 

'The tongue is wet and warm, despite the airflow generated by panting, and is thus effectively dissipating surplus body heat by radiation and evaporation. 

'The rhinarium, however, remains cold and is therefore ineffective.'   

The research team from Sweden's Lund University and the Eotvos Lorand University in Hungary had their research published in Scientific Reports.    

Source : https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8064029/Scientists-sniff-dogs-noses-cold.html