Animal Ears 🦎 How animals hear
Chameleon hearing range in hertz
Chamaeleo calyptratus
No eardrum: faint hearing, limited to low pitches.
In short
A Chameleon hears from about 100 Hz up to 1.5 kHz, and the pitch it catches best is near 350 Hz. Animal Ears lets you take any sound of yours and hear it exactly as it would.
A chameleon has no eardrum and no outer ear, so its hearing is weak and stays in the low pitches, between 100 and 1,500 Hz. It doesn't need much either: its life is played out through its eyes, which swivel independently and sweep almost 360 degrees without moving the head. An honest warning: nobody has fully measured a chameleon's hearing, so this curve is an approximation based on other lizards.
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 | 100 Hz |
|---|---|
| Highest it hears | 1.5 kHz |
| Hears most clearly | 350 Hz |
| What you hear | 20 Hz – 20 kHz |
Your ears vs a Chameleon's
It does miss the highs you can hear, though: above about 1.5 kHz there is nothing left for it.
Audiogram
| Hertz (Hz) | Hearing threshold |
|---|---|
| 100 Hz | 70 dB |
| 200 Hz | 62 dB |
| 300 Hz | 58 dB |
| 400 Hz | 58 dB |
| 500 Hz | 61 dB |
| 700 Hz | 67 dB |
| 900 Hz | 75 dB |
| 1.2 kHz | 86 dB |
| 1.5 kHz | 96 dB |
RANGE-DERIVED: no published chameleon audiogram; chameleons lack a tympanic ear, so this synthesised low-frequency, low-sensitivity curve (dB re 20 µPa) is bounded by general lizard hearing — treat as approximate.
Can a Chameleon hear things you can't?
A Chameleon picks up everything from 100 Hz (the deepest) to 1.5 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 350 Hz.
It does miss the highs you can hear, though: above about 1.5 kHz there is nothing left for it.
Frequently asked questions
What sounds can a Chameleon hear?
A Chameleon picks up everything from 100 Hz (the deepest) to 1.5 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 350 Hz.
Can a Chameleon hear things you can't?
It does miss the highs you can hear, though: above about 1.5 kHz there is nothing left for it.
How does Animal Ears make a sound like a Chameleon would hear it?
Scientists have measured, pitch by pitch, the quietest volume at which a Chameleon 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
- Wever, E.G. (1978). The Reptile Ear. Princeton University Press (chameleons lack a tympanum).
- Manley, G.A. (2002). Evolution of the hearing organ of lizards. J. Neurobiol., 53, 202–211. doi:10.1002/neu.10115
More animals
Sea turtle
It hears underwater and only lows: the highs go straight past it.
Snake
No eardrum, no ears: it listens to your footsteps by resting its jaw on the ground.
Crocodile
A mother who digs out the nest the moment she hears her young peeping.
Gecko
The best ears among lizards, tuned precisely to its own shout.
Animal Ears
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