Animal Ears 🐎 How animals hear
Horse hearing range in hertz
Equus caballus
Ears that swivel 180° independently: it listens behind its back without moving.
In short
A Horse hears from about 55 Hz up to 33.5 kHz, and the pitch it catches best is near 2 kHz. Animal Ears lets you take any sound of yours and hear it exactly as it would.
A horse hears from 55 to 33,500 Hz, so it too gets into ultrasound. But the interesting part isn't the ceiling, it's the consistency: it stays evenly sensitive across the whole 1,000 to 16,000 Hz band, so almost nothing slips past along the way. And then there are the ears: each one swivels up to 180 degrees on its own, like two independent aerials, aiming at a rustle while the rest of the body carries on grazing.
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 | 55 Hz |
|---|---|
| Highest it hears | 33.5 kHz |
| Hears most clearly | 2 kHz |
| What you hear | 20 Hz – 20 kHz |
Your ears vs a Horse's
Yes: it picks up pitches so high they are pure silence to you, up to about 33.5 kHz. Your ceiling is 20 kHz.
Audiogram
| Hertz (Hz) | Hearing threshold |
|---|---|
| 55 Hz | 60 dB |
| 125 Hz | 30 dB |
| 250 Hz | 20 dB |
| 500 Hz | 14 dB |
| 1 kHz | 9 dB |
| 2 kHz | 7 dB |
| 4 kHz | 11 dB |
| 8 kHz | 14 dB |
| 16 kHz | 15 dB |
| 25 kHz | 30 dB |
| 33.3 kHz | 60 dB |
Behavioural audiogram; ~55 Hz–33.5 kHz at 60 dB SPL, best ~2 kHz over a broad 1–16 kHz plateau.
Can a Horse hear things you can't?
A Horse picks up everything from 55 Hz (the deepest) to 33.5 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 2 kHz.
Yes: it picks up pitches so high they are pure silence to you, up to about 33.5 kHz. Your ceiling is 20 kHz.
Frequently asked questions
What sounds can a Horse hear?
A Horse picks up everything from 55 Hz (the deepest) to 33.5 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 2 kHz.
Can a Horse hear things you can't?
Yes: it picks up pitches so high they are pure silence to you, up to about 33.5 kHz. Your ceiling is 20 kHz.
How does Animal Ears make a sound like a Horse would hear it?
Scientists have measured, pitch by pitch, the quietest volume at which a Horse 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
- Heffner, R.S. & Heffner, H.E. (1983). Hearing in large mammals: horses and cattle. Behavioral Neuroscience, 97(2), 299–309. doi:10.1037/0735-7044.97.2.299
- Fay, R.R. (1988). Hearing in Vertebrates: A Psychophysics Databook. Hill-Fay Associates.
More animals
Goat
It hears ultrasound, yet it's sharpest exactly where a kid's bleat sits.
Seal
Two sets of ears in one: one tuned to air, the other to water.
Raccoon
Its broad in-air range reaches 40,000 Hz, while its most sensitive measured point sits near 1,000 Hz.
Dog
It hears squeals so high they're silence to you: that's why ‘silent' whistles work.
Animal Ears
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