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Curious Kids<\/a> is a series by The Conversation<\/a> that gives children the chance to have their questions about the world answered by experts. If you have a question you\u2019d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.com<\/a> and make sure you include the asker\u2019s first name, age and town or city. We won\u2019t be able to answer every question, but we\u2019ll do our very best.<\/p>\n Snot is also vital to help us to smell things<\/a>. The mucus traps tiny scent particles that are then transported to special smell receptors in the nose. These allow us to identify different odours like food, which is especially important to help wild animals survive. <\/p>\n Some animals have an amazing sense of smell<\/a>, much better than ours. Elephants<\/a> use theirs to sniff out food and water, detect predators, and even recognise their family. But, when animals have a cold, a lot more snot is produced, and this interrupts the ability to smell things properly.<\/p>\n Bogies are just dried snot that collects in nostrils. <\/p>\n Which animals make snot?<\/p>\n All organisms need to protect themselves, and all have a sense of smell. So, all have some sort of snot. Some animals have huge noses and nostrils, so produce loads of snot \u2013 these include cows, horses and rhinos. Some animals have a limited sense of smell \u2013 animals such as dolphins<\/a> and snakes<\/a> taste smells rather than sniff them. <\/p>\n Some animals even include snot in their diets. The vampire squid feeds on marine snow<\/a> in the oceans. This is made of snot but also poo and dead things. The vampire squid gathers up the falling bits of snot, then once it has collected enough, it eats it.<\/p>\n Vampire squid live deep in the ocean. The marine iguana<\/a> is one of the sneeziest animals. They produce lots of snot to help them get rid of the large amount of salt they eat from their favourite food, seaweed.<\/p>\n Marine iguanas like to eat algae and seaweed, Bird bogies<\/p>\n Animals that rely on their sense of smell produce more mucus \u2013 dogs are expert sniffers<\/a> and are known for having a wet nose. But most birds don\u2019t have a very good sense of smell. This is because they get most information that they need to survive from other senses such as sight and hearing. <\/p>\n As most owls hunt their prey at night, they tend to rely on their amazing sense of hearing<\/a> rather than their other senses. This means that they don\u2019t use their sense of smell as much as many other animals. So they don\u2019t need to produce loads of snot, but they still make some, and they still have bogies. Their poor sense of smell might explain why I, and my friends who do conservation studies on owls, have never seen an owl with a bogie. We\u2019re going to look more closely now, though!<\/p>\n There are some bird species that rely on a good sense of smell. Kiwis are flightless birds that live in New Zealand. They have long, thin beaks and an excellent sense of smell, and can sniff out earthworms in the soil<\/a>. <\/p>\n Kiwi birds have long beaks. Turkey vultures<\/a> are also known for their amazing sense of smell. They can smell food such as carcasses from miles away, finding rotting flesh underneath leaves just as quickly as flesh that is out in the open. <\/p>\n Some seabirds use their noses<\/a> to produce a map of smells to recognise where they are. This is useful on long migratory journeys across the open ocean where there are no features to help them to navigate. <\/p>\n Like the sneezy marine iguanas, seabirds need to get rid of the salt that builds up in their bodies from the seawater they drink and the salty prey they eat. These birds often look like they have a constantly runny nose, with mucus dripping from their nostrils. But the mucus actually comes from salt glands<\/a> near their eyes. <\/p>\n All of these birds produce lots of snot to help them to smell. <\/p>\n Which animals pick their bogies?<\/p>\n Scientists found that over 90% of people admit<\/a> to picking their nose. Teenagers seem to pick their nose<\/a> an average of four times a day \u2013 gross! <\/p>\n Nose picking also happens in primates<\/a> such as gorillas, chimpanzees and lemurs. Recently, an aye-aye \u2013 a creepy-looking animal with a super long middle finger \u2013 was filmed picking its nose and eating the bogies<\/a>. <\/p>\n![\"Black](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/file-20250911-86-q7xmzh.jpg\")
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\n Solvin Zankl\/Alamy<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Iguana](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/file-20250911-64-563xd1.jpg\")
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\n MDay Photography\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Kiwi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/file-20250911-56-p7zxv1.jpg\")
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