Animal Ears 🦡 How animals hear
Ferret hearing range in hertz
Mustela putorius furo
It hunts in pitch-dark tunnels, guided by its prey's high-pitched squeaks.
In short
A Ferret hears from about 36 Hz up to 44 kHz, and the pitch it catches best is near 12 kHz. Animal Ears lets you take any sound of yours and hear it exactly as it would.
A ferret hunts inside burrows, in the dark, where eyesight is useless. Its hearing covers 36 to 44,000 Hz and peaks near 12,000 Hz, well above yours (your sweet spot sits around 3,000). That zone is exactly where rodent squeaks live. Translated: in a completely black tunnel, a ferret knows where its prey is from the tiny noise it makes as it moves.
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 | 36 Hz |
|---|---|
| Highest it hears | 44 kHz |
| Hears most clearly | 12 kHz |
| What you hear | 20 Hz – 20 kHz |
Your ears vs a Ferret's
Yes: it picks up pitches so high they are pure silence to you, up to about 44 kHz. Your ceiling is 20 kHz.
Audiogram
| Hertz (Hz) | Hearing threshold |
|---|---|
| 40 Hz | 58 dB |
| 63 Hz | 46 dB |
| 125 Hz | 36 dB |
| 250 Hz | 28 dB |
| 500 Hz | 21 dB |
| 1 kHz | 15 dB |
| 2 kHz | 11 dB |
| 4 kHz | 7 dB |
| 8 kHz | 2 dB |
| 12 kHz | 0 dB |
| 16 kHz | 6 dB |
| 24 kHz | 16 dB |
| 44 kHz | 60 dB |
Digitised from Kelly et al. (1986); 60 dB SPL criterion (36 Hz–44 kHz), best ~0 dB near 12 kHz.
Can a Ferret hear things you can't?
A Ferret picks up everything from 36 Hz (the deepest) to 44 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 12 kHz.
Yes: it picks up pitches so high they are pure silence to you, up to about 44 kHz. Your ceiling is 20 kHz.
Frequently asked questions
What sounds can a Ferret hear?
A Ferret picks up everything from 36 Hz (the deepest) to 44 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 12 kHz.
Can a Ferret hear things you can't?
Yes: it picks up pitches so high they are pure silence to you, up to about 44 kHz. Your ceiling is 20 kHz.
How does Animal Ears make a sound like a Ferret would hear it?
Scientists have measured, pitch by pitch, the quietest volume at which a Ferret 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.
Ultrasound
Sounds so high your ears no longer register them: above about 20,000 Hz. To you they are total silence, but a dog, a cat or a bat hears them perfectly. That's exactly where a ‘silent' dog whistle lives.
Where these numbers come from
- Kelly, J.B., Kavanagh, G.L. & Dalton, J.C.H. (1986). Hearing in the ferret. Hearing Research, 24(3), 269–275. doi:10.1016/0378-5955(86)90025-0
- Fay, R.R. (1988). Hearing in Vertebrates: A Psychophysics Databook. Hill-Fay Associates.
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