Animal Ears 🦋 How animals hear
Butterfly hearing range in hertz
Morpho peleides
It hears through an ear at the base of the wing, tuned to birdsong.
In short
A Butterfly hears from about 500 Hz up to 10 kHz, and the pitch it catches best is near 3 kHz. Animal Ears lets you take any sound of yours and hear it exactly as it would.
The blue morpho butterfly keeps its ear somewhere unexpected: the base of the wing, a wafer-thin membrane that vibrates with sound. Its best zone is near 3,000 Hz, roughly the pitch of birdsong, and that coincidence is a juicy clue: it may help it detect an approaching bird before it becomes breakfast.
Hertz (Hz)
Which pitches it hears
Hertz count how many times per second a sound vibrates. Few vibrations = low (the rumble of thunder, about 30 Hz). Many vibrations = high (a microwave beeping, about 3,000 Hz). And ‘1 kHz' is just shorthand for 1,000 Hz. You hear, roughly, from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz.
A low sound rumbles (think thunder); a high sound squeals (think a mosquito). These three numbers mark how far down this animal goes, how far up it goes, and which pitch it hears most clearly of all.
| Lowest it hears | 500 Hz |
|---|---|
| Highest it hears | 10 kHz |
| Hears most clearly | 3 kHz |
| What you hear | 20 Hz – 20 kHz |
Your ears vs a Butterfly's
It does miss the highs you can hear, though: above about 10 kHz there is nothing left for it.
Audiogram
| Hertz (Hz) | Hearing threshold |
|---|---|
| 500 Hz | 78 dB |
| 1 kHz | 68 dB |
| 2 kHz | 60 dB |
| 3 kHz | 58 dB |
| 4 kHz | 60 dB |
| 5 kHz | 66 dB |
| 7 kHz | 74 dB |
| 10 kHz | 82 dB |
| 15 kHz | 90 dB |
| 20 kHz | 95 dB |
Far-field pressure hearing via Vogel's organ (a wing-base tympanal ear); most sensitive ~2–4 kHz, likely for low-frequency bird-predator cues. Roll-off is range-derived; approximate dB SPL.
Can a Butterfly hear things you can't?
A Butterfly picks up everything from 500 Hz (the deepest) to 10 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 3 kHz.
It does miss the highs you can hear, though: above about 10 kHz there is nothing left for it.
Frequently asked questions
What sounds can a Butterfly hear?
A Butterfly picks up everything from 500 Hz (the deepest) to 10 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 3 kHz.
Can a Butterfly hear things you can't?
It does miss the highs you can hear, though: above about 10 kHz there is nothing left for it.
How does Animal Ears make a sound like a Butterfly would hear it?
Scientists have measured, pitch by pitch, the quietest volume at which a Butterfly starts to hear each sound. We take that curve and apply it to your recording like a giant equaliser: we turn up the pitches the animal hears beautifully and turn down or remove the ones that simply don't exist for it. The result gets close to what it would notice... but it still arrives through your ears.
Hertz (Hz)
Hertz count how many times per second a sound vibrates. Few vibrations = low (the rumble of thunder, about 30 Hz). Many vibrations = high (a microwave beeping, about 3,000 Hz). And ‘1 kHz' is just shorthand for 1,000 Hz. You hear, roughly, from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz.
Where these numbers come from
- Lane, K.A., Lucas, K.M. & Yack, J.E. (2008). Hearing in a diurnal, mute butterfly, Morpho peleides. J. Comp. Neurology, 508, 677–686. doi:10.1002/cne.21675
- Lucas, K.M. et al. (2009). Auditory mechanics and sensitivity in Morpho peleides. J. Exp. Biol., 212, 3533–3541. doi:10.1242/jeb.032425
More animals
Penguin
It finds its partner by voice among thousands of penguins all shouting at once.
Duck
Sensible bird hearing: no extremes, all of it in quacking territory.
Chicken
It misses your highs, but it drops to rumbles you never even brush.
Human
Your starting point: from the rumble of thunder to the finest squeal you can catch.
Animal Ears
Get Animal Ears
Upload a sound of your own and hear it exactly as an animal would.