Live With Mule Deer, Go Inside Animal Minds on #pbsThinkday

Learn what it’s like to live among wild mule deer, dig into the remarkable senses of dogs, sharks, and birds, and then uncover what we’ve inherited from our reptilian ancestors on Think Wednesday, April 16 beginning at 8 p.m. on West Virginia PBS!

Nature kicks off the night with Touching the Wild, the story of Joe Hutto who has dedicated seven years of his life to becoming a wild mule deer. Ordinarily, the deer herd would run from any human, but these keenly intelligent animals come to regard this stranger as one of their own. As he crosses the species divide, Hutto taps into a new understanding of these elusive animals. His joy in his new family is infectious, but this human predator also learns to see the world from the point of view of prey — and it’s an experience that will rock him to his core; sharing their world so personally takes a toll that sends him back to his own kind.

Next, Inside Animal Minds: Dogs & Super Senses begins at 9 p.m. NOVA asks, “What is it like to be a dog, a shark or a bird?” This question is now getting serious attention from scientists who study animal senses.  Humans rely on smell, sight, taste, touch and sound; other animals have super-powered versions of these senses, and a few have extra senses we don’t have at all. From a dog that seems to use smell to tell time to a dolphin that can “see” with its ears, discover how animals use their senses in ways we humans can barely imagine. But it’s not just the senses that are remarkable — it’s the brains that process them. NOVA goes into the minds of animals to “see” the world in an entirely new way.

Finally, Your Inner Fish explores Your Inner Reptile. A key moment in our evolutionary saga occurred 200 million years ago, when the ferocious reptile-like animals that roamed the Earth were in the process of evolving into shrew-like mammals. But our reptilian ancestors left their mark on many parts of the human body, including our skin, teeth and ears.

Find it all on #pbsTHINKday!